


Merlin's Redemption & the Discovery of Arthur

by Theriechenbachevent



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Arthur Pendragon Returns, F/F, F/M, Hurt Merlin, Love Triangles, M/M, Magic Revealed, Protective Arthur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2018-04-19 20:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 38,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4760375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theriechenbachevent/pseuds/Theriechenbachevent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Dragon had said Arthur would return. That the King would rise again and his servant must be ready for him. But after years of waiting, of hoping, Merlin has reduced himself to watching humanity from afar. </p><p>Observing but never participating.</p><p>Until Arthur reappears. Suddenly Merlin is more unsure than he's ever been despite history repeating itself and it's all Merlin can do to keep up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Centuries.

Merlin had lost count of the years he wandered the world. He supposed that was part of his training. To become the wizard Gaius always believed he was. Poor Gaius had believed in him until his dying day. Refusing to pass on until he saw Merlin at his side.

He supposed he could have attempted to move on. Tried to have a family, but the weight of his existence weighed heavily on him. Even if he tried to take a wife and have children, he would see him every time he closed his eyes and dream about the days far past. It would always go back to him. Gwenivere had always said he was too single minded in his devotion, but Merlin never saw the harm in it. Until he was killed. And it was all Merlin's fault.

Arthur.

He'd never spoken the name aloud since that day he'd bid farewell to his King in the river. And he never would. Not until he returned and forgave his sins. Maybe not even then. The fault lay entirely with him, he would admit, even when told that Mordred would kill Arthur, Merlin had insisted that he could stop it. Then, not even 6 months later, Merlin had set his king's body aflame down the lake to join his mother and father in the Otherworld.

And so he waited. For centuries he waited for his return. The world still existed and changed. He saw humanity expand from tiny villages into sprawling metropolises, with weapons that would have decimated Camelot in seconds.

Camelot.

The destruction of the kingdom had been thorough and many had died. Without knights like Gwaine and Lancelot, they stood no chance in defending themselves from the Druids and in two days Camelot was nothing more than a wasteland. A place of broken hopes and dreams. Merlin let the others believe him dead, leaving a piece of his clothing to be found by Gwen. The queen quickly succumbed to the Druids and Merlin watched as her very spirit broke and the Druids rejoiced in her death.

Her death would be something that Arthur would never forgive him for. For watching though he might've been able to spirit her away. At that point Merlin had considered everything lost and just withered away. Much like his kingdom.

In the years that followed, the number of times Merlin had used his magic was few and far in between. He called on Kilagraah only once to confirm what the great Dragon had already prophesied before. Arthur would return. Not might. Would. A certainty.

Merlin, watched the earth grow and change. He saw it become the empire it now was. Watched its children grow, love, die and wished that Arthur had had that same chance.

Now as he slowly trudged down central London, Merlin in his disguise as an old man wearing jeans and a worn blue button down with his white hair and large beard, Merlin just observed. Waiting for his King to return.

As Merlin passed a school district, and he felt himself pushed aside by the masses, and saw the swarm of students that threatened to swamp the streets and pulled off into a side alley to watch the eager young lot live life. To jostle their way without a care in the world to go to school.

His eyes roved over them, pausing to read their stories as an open book, like he'd been taught. Broken homes, happy homes, abuse, love, hatred, apathy, empathy and resignation. He saw it all and for moments like this, Merlin wished he had died along with Arthur, so he wouldn't see the monsters that modernization created.He passed over red hair, brown hair, black pink and blonde hair. A tall blonde boy caught his eye amongst the crowd.

Suddenly, Merlin became very still. His blood pounded in his ears and all he heard was a roaring in the far distance that sounded like The Dragon. Yet all Merlin could do was stare. For 5 centuries he had waited. It was relief. He closed his eyes and breathed a single word to the universe around him.

_Arthur._


	2. Gaius

Even after seeing countless motion pictures - sorry - ' _movies_ ', Merlin had scoffed that idea of a cinematic slow motion shot, meant to emphasize a particularly life changing moment, be in horror, sorrow, joy or discovery was effective cinematography. He thought it silly and kitschy.

However, right at that moment, Merlin couldn't deny that he was experiencing that very phenomenon. It was all he could do to focus on breathing as he heard distinctly heard Kilagraah's mighty roar in his minds' eye, signalling the return of the King and the re-emergence of a destiny long past.Arthur Pendragon was right in front of him.

Arthur was _alive_.

Merlin could have shouted with joy. Something in him felt completed the moment he laid eyes on the him, who couldn't even be 20 yet. Clearly still a boy. A mere child to Merlin's 597 year old self. He still looked exactly the same as he had, all those years ago, the day they'd rode off to fight their last battle together.

The day Arthur had died.

He possessed the same eyes, that same blond hair and that same, stupid, self indulgent smile. Merlin watched as Arthur walked past a student wearing the same uniform as him and carrying a large, glass science experiment. He sighed as Arthur stuck a foot out to intentionally trip the boy and watched as he and his friends roared with laughter as the student went sprawling, his experiment shattering in an instant.

Merlin ran a hand through his snow white hair, and contemplated helping the boy, seeing as no one else was.

 _Once a prat, always a prat_.

He supposed it was too much to ask for even reincarnation to beat that particular personality trait out of him. Merlin watched as Arthur high-fived his mates and strolled past the now panicking boy, still laughing. Old habits died hard, Merlin figured.

The question was, now what was he to do? This was no longer Camelot. This was 21st Century London, England. The Queen was only a figure head and no other ruler was necessary. Did Arthur even require Merlin any more? Merlin had no answer for that, and the thought frightened him

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It would take some work, but Merlin decided he was going to have to enroll in Arthur's school if only to keep an eye on him, Kilagraah had said Arthur would return, and it meant Merlin had not waited so long in vain. Even if that meant watching from a distance. Merlin was currently in a pub, trying to sort out his plan of action. As of right now, he hadn't had much more luck than deciding just to watch the boy. He knew he'd have to find an explanation for his absentee parents, and read up on current historical significant events and pop culture to get himself sounding like he was from the correct era.

"Merlin?"

Merlin froze. He'd know that voice anywhere. Never had he thought he would hear it again. It had been years since someone had addressed him with his own name. He turned to see a man, with white hair and kind eyes standing in front of him, shoulders slightly stooped, looking rather wizard-like in his small tan colored suit. The man blinked at him, confused.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry. I'm just - I'm sure your name is Merlin for some odd reason."

 _Gaius_.

Lords. It was Gaius, standing in front of Merlin. His hair was shorter, but his very being was exactly the same as it had been before. Merlin probably looked as astonished as the man was confused.

"Y-you would be correct. It is Merlin." Merlin offered the seat next to him to the man and watched as he settled in. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I have't introduced myself. My name is Keyes. Dr. Rowland Keyes." Merlin shook the offered hand and smiled.

"I would introduce myself, but it seems you already know who I am, Doctor." Keyes paused, smoothed out his jacket and nervously fiddled with his cuffs before saying.

"So, I'm not hallucinating then? These - these dreams I've been having, they're real? These dreams where I am physician to King Uther and Prince Arthur and caring for a rather clumsy, gangly boy named Merlin?" Keyes Merlin a once over and Merlin remembered suddenly that he was disguised as an old man. Long white hair, an equally long beard to boot, In addition to his beer belly that had nothing to do with alcohol and everything to do with magic and his rather sloppy appearance in jeans and a stained blue button down, he could see why Keyes was suddenly in doubt. He peered around the pub and decided that he'd chosen a secluded enough section of the establishment to drop the glamour around him.

He himself had stopped physically aging after he'd turned 23 years old. unfortunately, that left him in his odd, skinny, gangly body forever. If Arthur ever caught wind of that, Merlin would never hear the end of it. 597 years of looking like a boy just out of puberty and counting. Once Merlin quickly dropped the glamour, he now sat in the pub with his regular attire. A brown suit coat over a blue t-shit and black trousers. He wore black converse where he would have previously worn boots before and his tell tale red kerchief sat reliably on his neck.

Keyes gasped and Merlin grinned. He reached out and shook the doctor;s hand again. "Pleasure to make your re-acquaintance Keyes." Keyes gaped at him and then suddenly remembered how to breathe again and took re-assuring sips of his drink. He rubbed a had over his face.

Magic and reincarnation. It was a lot to take in, Merlin knew, and tried to smile comfortingly at the doctor. Keyes seemed to take strength from that and he straightened, facing Merlin.

"I have to tell you Merlin, I think," Keyes took a deep breath, looking around and said the next words softly. "I think I may have found Arthur." Merlin stifled a grin. He didn't want to ruin Keyes's revelation by saying he'd already run into the boy in the street today.

"Yeah?" He tried to look surprised and Keyes caught him immediately in the act.

"You already know where he is." Keyes said studying Merlin's expression. Merlin looked genuinely surprised to find that Keyes knew he was lying. Keyes pinned him with an exasperated look.

"I've dreamed about you and our adventures enough to know when you're lying Merlin." Merlin laughed, blue eyes twinkling at the man.

"I suppose that's true, Keyes. But what are the chances. You finding Arthur in this life as well. Are you their attending physician in this time as well?" Keyes laughed as well at the irony of it.

"I was, now I work at Hartwick Academy, the school Arthur attends."

"Lords, how is it, that even in this life, you play the same role Keyes?" Keyes smiled at him and clapped him on the back much to Merlin's surprise.

"Then, I guess I should play my role to the hilt shouldn't I? I suppose that means you;ll be coming to stay with me from now on?" Keyes smiled and Merlin was suddenly blinded by the depth of his kindness. He surprised Keyes with a hug again.

"Thank you, Keyes. Thank you."


	3. Marlin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: and another chapter bites the dust! I'm rather pleased, actually with how this chapter turned out. As always i'd love a comment or two :) and any suggestions that come with it. like a scenario you'd like to see, both past or present as there will be flash backs in this story.
> 
> Thank you for reading!

 The next morning saw Merlin waking up in a posh, upper London apartment in a nice warm bed. Something Merlin hadn't experienced in over 100 years, choosing instead to hop from motel to motel as he crossed the country, waiting for Arthur's return.

In fact, the last time Merlin had maintained a permanent residence was in 1878, when he'd occupied apartment 221A Bakers Street, next to a Detective and his roommate, a Doctor. Merlin snickered to himself as he hoisted himself out of bed and opened his windows, in the room he called his in Keyes apartment.

The "consulting detective" as he had referred to himself, and his friend, had been an absolute terror to live with as neighbors. There were loud fights, with people frequently being expelled from the premises via the window instead of the door the fact that Sherlock played the violin at odd hours of the day (and night) and lastly, his ghastly experiments that would probably have leveled the street if it were not for Merlin finding a way to protect the other apartments from the damages that the detective frequently dealt his own apartment to the chagrin of his flatmate, Dr John Watson.

Sherlock had been a nice enough man, though rather blunt, while the doctor was a kind and gentle soul, though prone to erratic bursts of violence when his own security was threatened.

The media had definitely glorified their endeavors, not that they weren't well deserved, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's insistence that Sherlock played the violin wonderfully was something Merlin laughed at even today. The man had been a _horrendous_ violin player. Merlin had thought his ears would bleed out before the end of his stay, which lead to another enchantment to tone down the volume of the blasted instrument that reliably squawked whenever Sherlock sawed his bow over the poor strings.

It had been entertaining though, to live around such a lively pair, but Merlin found himself growing continously aware that Sherlock's biggest mystery was now Merlin, a boy with no parents, no viable job, and a reticence to explain the nature of his existence in Bakers Street whilst having no general purpose in life other than to seemingly just, _wait_ , for something to happen.

The unusual observance of the man had Merlin turning wary after a while and after 8 odd years of living in Baker's Street, Merlin had decided it was time to move on. Preferably before either the Consulting Detective, the Doctor or Ms. Hudson caught on.

 _Of course_ , Merlin scoffed in annoyance, remembering that day, _of course_ , Sherlock had caught on. Perceptive dollop that he was.

Merlin padded into the ensuite bathroom in the room that Keyes had provided him. Simple, white fixtures and towels, a serviceable situation and better than Merlin was used to having. _Definitely beats using a latrine,_ Merlin thought, grimacing at memories of Camelot's latrines. Ones he'd frequently cleaned as punishments by Arthur for his extensive stays at "the tavern".

 _Stubborn ass never knew I was out trying to save his sorry hide_. Merlin thought back to the day he left Baker's Street as he brushed his teeth and remembered his last conversation with the younger Holmes'.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Evening Morgan."

Merlin cursed as he jumped at the voice and bumped his shin on the side table next to him. He looked up to see Sherlock Holmes staring at him thoughtfully from the entrance to his apartment.

It was a small apartment, consisting of two rooms. A kitchen and living area in one and the bedroom off to one side.

"Evening Mr. Holmes. What a surprise for you to drop in. How can I help you?" Sherlock strolled into the living room and sat down gracefully in the only vacant chair in the apartment. His steady gaze took in everything, from the empty kitchen to the boxes with various items in it and puffed on his pipe. Eventually he turned to Merlin and smiled.

"All ready to leave then Morgan? I just wanted to drop by before you disappeared. I had an inkling you were leaving and just wanted to catch you before left undoubtedly without saying adieu. " Sherlock said the words easily but it left Merlin speechless. He hadn't mentioned he hadn't told anyone he was leaving, and one could only guess he was by the state of his apartment, which he seldom let anyone enter. Sherlock spoke again, as if he'd read Merlin's mind.

"You began speaking in finalities and past tense three days ago, after we had that _delightful_ chat about loyalty. Which is when you decided to leave, I suspect. You gave John a copy of your book of medieval medicinal treatments and Ms. Hudson a copy of your medieval cookery journal. Then you handed me a rare Arthurian era pipe. These are all items you treasured, the fact that you gave these items to us tells me you've decided to leave. Again."

Merlin started in surprise, the man was far too perceptive if he could tell that moving around every few years was his life. Sherlock regarded Merlin somberly. as if thinking of how to say his next few words.

"If I may, Morgan. I wish to elaborate on something I didn't have the chance to complete the other day." Merlin nodded wordlessly to the other man, unsure of what was coming next. "Loyalty, like we agreed earlier, is indeed requiring of utter devotion, but it also begets the question of blind fealty versus reality." Sherlock studied Merlin again, as if reading his face for confirmation of his suspicions.

"The longer you dwell on your loyalty to someone who no longer walks on the terrestrial plains, the more unable you become to perform your duties in the reality within which we live." Merlin felt himself stiffen, unconsciously brisltling at the insinuation, but held back because both men were very careful to label the whole discussion a 'hypothetical situation'.  

"It would be prudent to analyze your own behavior and discern whether the actions you take are performed out of blind faith, for loyalty extends only so far before it becomes obscured by idealism and fantasy." Sherlock stood, rearranging his jacket and slipping a hand non-noncommittally in his pocket. Merlin managed to school is shocked features into some semblance of a rueful smile.

The detective walked out of the doors threshold and paused, turning back to Merlin. "Good bye Morgan. It was fascinating to make your acquaintance. I shall pass your regards along to John and Ms. Hudson."

"Goodbye Mr. Holmes."

And that night, Merlin had vanished and taken with him all traces of his existence.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Merlin stared at his face in the mirror, his bright blue eyes stared at him, making his pale white skin, and black hair stick out more starkly than he would like. His long neck and arms, in the white t-shirt he wore, made him appear even more gangly than he was His legs stuck out like sticks from the blue striped boxer shorts he wore.

Merlin rinsed his mouth and tried to smooth his infernally mussed hair before a sharp knock at his door had him poking his head out of the bathroom to see the slight slivers of Keyes feet outside his door.

"Merlin, breakfast is ready if you'd like some." Keyes sounded rather timid now, as if he were afraid the events of last night was nothing but an alcohol induced dream. Merlin walked over and opened his door to see Keyes standing there in the doorway, spatula in hand and wearing an apron that read **"Kiss the Cook".**

Merlin raised an eye brow at the apron to which Keyes flushed but didn't remove it.

"My late wife, Alice, had an awful sense of humor, I'm afraid. Now if my dreams are anything to go by, I'm pretty sure you prefer eggs and sausages for breakfast."

Keyes laughed as Merlin's eyes lit up like the boy he was used to seeing in his dreams and he zipped by Keyes to seat himself at the table and ravenously dug in. Keyes sat next to and tucked into his own meal, eyeing Merlin wryly.

"You know, I'm having trouble deciding whether you are eating, Merlin or inhaling your food."

Merlin just stuck out his thumbs in a "good job" gesture indicating Keyes' breakfast had been received favorably. Keyes rolled his eyes and poured himself a cup of coffee and after a moment of thought, poured Merlin one too.

"So what is it that you've decided to do Merlin? Arthur attends Hartwick Academy in central London. Its a facility for the elite and influential. Every year, only 1 student is allowed in from the scholarships and is required to pass all kinds of academic and psychological tests in order to ascertain whether the student is able to adjust to the school's environment. "

Merlin had finished his coffee and poured himself another cup, the continued to cram the sausages in his mouth. "You seem," he said, after swallowing a bite. "To know quite a bit about Arthur's school. Did you research it?"

Keyes scoffed and looked at Merlin like thhe was both amused and frustrated .

"Were you not paying attention last night? I'm the head of the medical department there. After I worked for the Drayce's as they're personal physician, I moved to become the Chief of the Medics department at Hartwick Academy. You would not believe the amount of allergies and ailments that the rich afflict themselves with. I also know that the current scholarship student has withdrawn from the academy."

Keyes paused and amended his statement. "Well, the official statement says that he backed out due to incompatibility and an inability to conform to academic and social needs. He failed the psych evaluation."

Merlin wiped his mouth with a napkin and took a last swig of his coffee and put the mug down. He prompted the doctor to continue.

"But unofficially?"

"Arthur and his boys have made it so that the boy wouldn't have the stomach to endure another day in the school."

Merlin sighed and picked up his plate, depositing it in the sink and turned to look at Keyes.

"You mean he's being a prat."

Keyes shrugged. "I'm afraid, Merlin, that young Arthur is in exactly the same spot as he was when you first met him in Camelot, all those many years ago."

A comfortable quiet descended over them as Merlin mulled over the information that Keyes had given him. He quickly came to a conclusion, similar to what he had thought of last night. It fit with his persoanlity; do something first, ask questions later. They washed the dishes and tidied up the kitchen and while drying the wet dishes, Merlin casually said to Keyes.

"I think I'm going to enroll in Hartwick Academy." Keyes nearly dropped the dish he was drying and stared at Merlin incredulously.

"Did you hear anything I just said? I did just tell you that Arthur prides himself on running the scholarship students _in particular,_  out of school."

"Well, someone's got to beat it out of him." Merlin's blue eyes flashed with the incentive of a challenge. "In any case, if he's anything like the old Arthur, he's not all bad. He just keeps the good hidden away underneath the disguise of being a stubborn clot-pole."

It was Keyes turn to raise an eye brow at Merlin who hastily fixed his earlier statement.

"I meant idiot. Stubborn idiot."

"Well, that's certainly going to put you on his hit list. Merlin, your going to make a rather large target of yourself if you keep speaking in medieval colloquialisms."

Merlin nodded and stood there in the kitchen in his boxers and a flimsy white t-shirt and tried to remember current history relevant with today's culture and the appropriate cultural phrases between peers. Keyes went to his room, intent on changing into his suit for work.

"Keyes," Keyes heard the warlock call him and stuck his head out of the door of his room to see Merlin standing in the middle of his apartment looking for all the world just like a regular student, in his underclothes and yet managing to look simultaneously equivalent to his collective years on the earth.

"I'm going to have to ask you to call me Marlin from now on."

" _Marlin?_ " The name sounded ludicrous. Merlin grinned at him, enjoying the look of confusion on the man's face. 

"Yes. It's only one letter off. I'm sure you'll manage." Keyes rolled his eyes at Merlin's - sorry - _Marlin's_ cheerful smile as the man returned to his room, presumably to sort out the rest of his plan. 

His life had gone, in the span of one night, from unbearably dull to almost enjoyable. Keyes found he actually liked the warlock's company, eccentric as he was, and thought to himself with a small amount of satisfaction for the headache that the younger Drayce would have to go through. 

Arthur Pendragon - no - Arthur Drayce was about to have his life turned irrevocably upside down. 

He might even _like_ it.


	4. Arthur

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: HELLO MY LOVELIES. Another wonderful day in fanfiction and I bring to you the next chapter of my story! I would love if you would so kindly bestow upon my story a review or two. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

In the years since Arthur's death, the instances in which Merlin used his powers were few and far in between. Killing Morgana and Agravaine had not been pleasant, and it was the first time he had used magic to kill someone, during war. (Some might argue that using Excalibur to kill Morgana was not necessarily magic but Merlin begged to differ. Excalibur was magic and so was he). He used magic sparingly now, though it pained him. Mostly to alter his appearance and create the paper work needed to validate his existence in today's world. (There was so damned much of it. How he longed for the days of Camelot, with no pesky paper work to deal with). Situations in which magic was essential was when Merlin gave in to his true nature.

Situations like this.

 

What he was going to do next was something he hadn't attempted in a number of years. Merlin was going to try and fabricate his existence _entirely_ from scratch. The last time he'd made any sort of identification for himself was during the times of the second and first world war. He had fought in Camlann, so what was the point of withholding his power in such a tense situation such as a world war?

Merlin had been shocked by the intensity of the war, so different from hand - to - hand combat with the addition of such deadly projectile weapons and the abundance of toxic gasses used in chemical warfare, Merlin had barely survived by the skin of his teeth.

But this-this situation, finding Arthur, was different. It was a question of Merlin's survival. He _had_ to know that he and Arthur had crossed paths again for a reason. He walked to his room and opened the door.

Merlin entered his room and glanced around. It was probably the size of Gaius's workshop back in Camelot. Keyes had placed a large wrought iron bed in the center, with 3 large pillows sitting at its head and covered in a fluffy white duvet. On the left side, there was a large closet with mirrors for doors that slid open in an accordion fashion and on the right side of the bed was a wooden desk, parallel to the head of the bed.

Next to the desk was a wall to wall window, looking out on to the busy metropolitan street below. Directly opposite the bed was a en suite bathroom with a humble shower/bathtub combo and separate bath closet. It was probably the most luxurious lodging he'd had in his entire existence.

Merlin shook himself out of his reverie and entered his room, shutting the door behind him and settling on his bed. He figured he had about 30 minutes before Keyes was ready to leave. Which was how long he now had time to construct himself a new identity.

Merlin closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to visualize the papers and documentation needed to prove his identity. He focused on creating a birth certificate from the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital for his birth, and in order to qualify for school and yet still be Arthur's peer, Merlin would have to be 18 years old, which would put his approximate birth year in 1998.

He put blanks in the section for parents on the birth certificate, indicating an abandoned baby at the hospital and therefore no parents to speak of. Lived in various foster homes, which explain the multitude of scars and wounds that covered his body from years of living through different time eras, different injuries, by different people. Explaining the 7 huge scars on his back that traveled down to his legs, not to mention the other various remnants of cuts and gouges that peppered his body, would be a tad difficult without that convenient cover.

Next would be his schooling history. Public school would make sense after being placed in foster care, which would be consistent with a desire to perform exceptionally in the hopes of creating a better life for himself away from the harsh environment that his foster care family created. Not high enough to be top runner but high enough to qualify as runner up for the scholarship. He would be displacing the actual runner up but Merlin made sure to relocate her somewhere that she would create the same thread of life that she would have created in Hartwick Academy.

When Merlin opened his eyes, a thin sheen of sweat covered his face from the exertion of practicing magic for such an extended period of time. He hadn't used enchantments like that since Bakers Street. He stretched and looked around, taking in his surroundings again.

This would be his life now. In this apartment, with Keyes, he would spend the rest of his time watching over his King for the rest of his natural life. Merlin heard Keyes come out into the kitchen area again, hearing the jingling of keys on the counter and Keyes shuffling as he put his socks on. He hurried to put on some jeans and a simple plaid button down before grabbing his rucksack and meeting Keyes at the front door.

"Keyes," The doctor turned around while shrugging into his jacket.

"Yes Mer - Marlin?" The doctor now wore black trousers paired with a white dress shirt and had now put on a black blazer jacket with a name tag pinned to the breast pocket just under the Hartwick Academy school crest.

"I - uh - I changed legal records to show that you adopted me over the summer." Merlin looked a little sheepish, since he hadn't exactly asked to mess with his records so now he was wondering if he'd over stepped his boundaries. Keyes smiled at his comment and swiped his keys off the counter.

"Well then, _son_ , I should probably warn you that if we don't leave right now, then you will almost certainly be late." Keyes gave him an amused wink, like he was having a grand old time with the way his life was playing out.

Merlin broke out in a wide smile as he put his shoes on and followed the doctor out the front door and into the hallway of the apartment complex. Keyes locked the door and turned to him, a smile on his face, so like the wry smiles that Gaius used to give him.

"Well then, off to your first day of school."  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Merlin felt his jaw drop as the gates of Hartwick Academy opened and they were permitted inside the premises. The school sat just outside of Central London, on a 10, 000 acre lot of greenery and foliage, in the middle of which the Academy sprawled out. It was a majestic and expansive building, which was constructed under clearly Roman or Greek influence.

The entrance to the institution was accessed through a solemn looking gate of re-in forced steel, nearly 15 ft high. Once inside, Merlin was greeted with a hallway paved with shining marble that extended both to his left and right whilst immediately in front of him were two huge glass doors that led to a sprawling courtyard as large as a football field and surrounded on each side by the building it was encased in.

Merlin could see a sea of white and black uniforms as students mingled and talked. Merlin allowed himself to be lead by Keyes, who found him a uniform, a book bag and managed to enroll him in all of Arthur's courses, which unsurprisingly focused on management. Then, before he knew it, Merlin was standing outside of his home room class.

He tried to ignore the teacher and zeroed in on the fact that behind that dark, foreboding door was Arthur Pendragon. Arthur was behind that door. The tension he felt made him remember all the times that he gone off on quests with Arthur, where he'd been sure they would die and some how just knowing Arthur was here, again, alive, made him more nervous than when he'd faced Morgana, Morgause and even Agravaine.

The more pressing question was whether Arthur knew he was Arthur. Did he remember? What would he do if he did? What would he do if he didn't? What if more of them were re-incarnated, what would it mean?

What was the reason for all this in first place? Why had Arthur come back?

Suddenly Merlin couldn't move, he was so paralyzed with fear. Merlin was unsure of everything and was so overcome that that coherent thought eluded him.

"Merlin." Keyes' whisper in his ear made him jump, by saying his name under his breath.

"We came back for a reason, thats true, but there's no rush. You've waited 500 years, you can wait a few more days for all the answers. Just go at your own pace."

With a reassuring pat on the back, Keyes shuffled down the hallway towards what Merlin presumed was his office. He turned and followed the teacher into the classroom on pins and needles. Merlin turned around and took a deep breath and followed his teacher into the classroom

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was somewhat a relief to find that his entrance into the class had been of little interest to his classmates. They had barely glanced at him when he entered the room. It made it all the more easier for him to spot Arthur without looking like he was watching him.

Arthur sat at the back of his class, dressed to perfection (clearly that tick of his had stuck with him. At least now it wasn't Merlin that had to fix his wardrobe up for him). Merlin was almost not surprised to find that Arthur was talking Leon because of course he was. The man was _nothing_  else if not loyal.

There were a couple of other boys he didn't recognize but that was to be expected. Arthur wasn't going to only come in contact with Camelot reincarnates.

As Merlin walked to his seat in the back, his eyes briefly met with Arthur's, and a distinct feeling passed through him. Arthur's eyes noticeably darkened as he looked at Merlin.

The gaze was so undeniably Arthur and yet it was never a look that he'd bestowed upon Merlin , as suddenly as the moment had presented itself, it disappeared and Merlin wasn't sure if he'd felt anything at all

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

It was lunch and Merlin was perched in the corner of the court yard, away from prying eyes as he ate the sandwich that he'd packed from home. He'd been introduced to the class as Marlin Keyes and despite his hopes, the teacher, a Mr. Collins, had gone ahead and informed the class that he was the adopted son of the Medics Department Head and coincidentally the new scholarship student.

Suddenly everyone was interested and Merlin could practically feel Arthur's gaze boring a hole in his skull.

_So much for inconspicuousness._

He had no doubt that these children of the elite class would soon root through his paper history and learn all they needed to about him. Even now, Merlin had opted to eat a homemade lunch as opposed to availing himself to the school restaurant as the others had, which now made him the object of everyone's scrutiny.

Merlin could feel their eyes on him as he packed the trash from his lunch and got up to chuck it into the bin. Beyond the two glances that Arthur had given him, he'd been largely ignored, which was fine by Merlin and when pressed to make groups in class, Merlin had resisted the urge to look at Arthur and instead taken up the offer of the student that sat next to him.

He mulled over his thoughts over the new Arthur he was seeing. He possessed the same qualities as before, the need for perfection, the strive for being the best and yet also that maddening quality in him that chose to lord his perfection over others.

Speaking of his King, Merlin could hear the sound of Arthur's voice before he saw him, a great crowd of burly men, much like Arthur, came spilling into the courtyard, from the glass doors opposite Merlin.

They were wearing sports jerseys ( _of course_ Arthur's jersey was proudly displaying a **#1** ), and were maintaining a circle formation around a clearly new initiate, a freshman kid. They whipped a rugby ball back and forth to each other. Arthur was chucking the rugby ball past the kid with alarming speed laughing as the ball would every so often clip the student, making him yelp.

"Come on, don't stop now! I'm only just getting started." Arthur called to the student, catching the ball and whipping it past his face, The kid, whose name was Morris as Merlin could make out, had stopped running, hands braced on his knees, panting to catch his breath.

"Don't stop moving, keep running! How else will I practice for the game, Morris?" The former King's voice was taunting and smug. Merlin sighed.

_Once a prat, always a prat. It's practically in their blood._

"Do keep up will you, you daft fool." The other members of the team laughed at Arthur's jibes at the boy.

The ball whipped by poor Morris again, bopping him on the head and bouncing off, rolling to a stop in front of Merlin. He stepped on the ball when Morris came to pick up it up, shaking his head at the boy, who looked at him half fearfully and half relieved.

"Come on guys, that's enough now."

The words were out of Merlin's mouth before he could stop them. Arthur stopped and seemed to really look at Merlin for the first time. He shook his head minutely, like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Behind him, his friends watched interested-ly.

"What?"

The words were slow, languid, like he was playing with a toy that didn't understand its own function.

"You've had your fun mate, now cut him loose." Merlin said again, locking eyes with Arthur, much like the first time he'd met the prince on his training ground.

"Do I know you?" Arthur said, the question dripped with underlying tones of ' _you're making a **huge** mistake here_ '. Merlin extended his hand out to Arthur who looked between him and his offered hand like he'd grown a third head.

"I'm Marlin Keyes,"

"So I _don't_ know you then." Merlin withdrew his hand, and resisted the urge to snap back the way he used when he and Arthur knew each other. The man could be vindictive and Merlin wanted to get away without causing too much trouble.

"No, you don't, I suppose." _Fine, see if I help you when your sorry arse is about bite the dust again,_  Merlin thought churlishly at Arthur's attitude.

"Yet you called me ' _mate_ '."

"My mistake I suppose. I couldn't be friends with such an ass." Merlin turned around and walked away, making sure that Morris had had ample time to run away.

"Nor I with someone so stupid." Merlin stopped, then willed himself to keep walking.

"Tell me, Marlin, do you know what the disciplinary council room looks like?" Merlin rolled his eyes. The man _always_ had to have the last word.

"No." Arthur let out an amused laugh, and Merlin turned to face him, arms crossed over his chest.

"Do you want some help finding your way there?"There it was, that stupid, obnoxious, prattish smile that Merlin hated and missed so much.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Merlin warned him.

 _What? Are you gonna throw a spell at him? Are you mental? In the middle of the courtyard no less?_ Merlin's voice of reason panicked within him, behind his mouthing off.

Arthur approached, un-intimidated by his warning.

"What? What are you going to do, Marlin?"

Arthur's maddening way of talking down to him hadn't changed at all and Merlin found himself irked by the seedling in front of him that possessed Arthur's face but as of yet had not shown him the wit that Arthur was so famous for even today.

Because _of course_ King Arthur was famous some 500 years later, but so was Merlin. It was Gaius' texts that detailed the quests of himself and Arthur that had made them so famous so many centuries later, though people still postulated whether it was history or myth.

The entire courtyard now watched them and Merlin was frustrated that he had accomplished being the exact opposite of inconspicuous.

"You have no idea." Arthur positively howled with laughter, the wind ruffling the hair on his head and jersey rustling from the strength of the gale.

"Really? Then be my guest Marlin." Arthur held his arms wide open, daring Merlin to do something.

 _He really does piss me off. I waited more than 500 bloody years for this arse,_ Merlin felt an irrational anger bubble up inside him. 

Arthur approached Merlin again, and by now, the warlock was seething from anger held down for too long and suddenly before Merlin knew what he was doing, he lashed out at the young man. Arthur ducked and grabbed the offending limb, wrenching it behind Merlin's back and twisting it for good measure.

The blonde King spoke in his ear, voice maddeningly smug,

"I could have you expelled for that." It was almost conversational, the way Arthur said it, not like the threat it actually was.

"Who do you think you are? The Head Master?" Merlin retorted, annoyed that 5 centuries later, he'd still fallen for the same trick.

"No." The arm gripping Merlin's twisted it tighter. "I'm his son. Arthur."

Because _of course_ he was


	5. Beyond Appearances

One minute, Arthur had Merlin's arm pinned behind his back, the next, Merlin was sitting in the disciplinary council room being lectured on "Anger Management" and having an arm load of exercises thrust in his hands to combat his "emotive challenges".

Then, Keyes was bustling into the room, apologizing for Merlin's behavior, covering it up with his "emotionally challenging" foster home background, and grabbing Merlin by the elbow to steer him out of the room.

Merlin really hadn't meant to engage Arthur so soon, but it wasn't as if he'd planned it either. Things had just kind of _snowballed_. It seemed he couldn't shake the habit of getting under Arthur's skin, friends or not.

And friends they were _decidedly_ not.

Especially now.

It was time for physical education class, one which Merlin loathed despite considering himself fairly fit in his 597 year old life. In any case, he could run a couple flights of stairs without feeling winded, which was more than majority of today's youth could say for themselves. While Merlin despised the class, he could see the necessity. Modern times had made it so that moving wasn't strictly necessary, as there was always something that could do the job for you. Merlin tuned back into the one sided conversation that Keyes had started.

"Why is it that every time you cross paths with the man you feel the need to punch him?" Keyes groused at him. He'd lived a decently calm life, up until now, odd reincarnation dreams included, trust Merlin to come back and turn it topsy-turvy within the span of one day.

Merlin shrugged, choosing to find the humor in the situation and inwardly laughing at how much it resembled the way Gaius used to chastise him for constantly finding ways to annoy Arthur.

"I'm not sure. I guess it's nice to know that he hasn't changed from the insufferable dollop head that he was before. It would have been downright creepy if he was _nice_ to me or something." Merlin said the word "nice" as if it were a particularly nasty disease, wrinkling his nose in horror at the very thought. Arthur had always made use of his social station to torture Merlin as much as he could, Merlin got back at him, he always did, but there was something to be said for a full frontal retaliation.

Merlin grinned suddenly as realization struck, and Keyes groaned. He recognized that look, both from dreaming of his past life and just being a member of faculty in a school full of teen boys and girls.

That was the look of someone with a very bad idea.

Merlin waved to Keyes as he ducked inside the change rooms and Keyes prayed to whatever deity was listening to go easy on his poor old soul.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Merlin quickly stripped off his shirt and under shirt to quickly pull on the sweat shirt provided to him by the school, grateful for the fact he was late. He hadn't yet figured out how to change clothes without the other boys seeing his scars.

It took a lot of energy to cover his scars with magic and while they brought unwanted attention, they were simultaneously a part of him. And even if Arthur behaved like an ass with him, he preferred not to hide any part of himself from Arthur.

It was definitely going to be an awkward revelation.

He shrugged the shirt on and checked his sweat pants to make any extra skin wasn't showing and ran a hand through his hair before he exited the change room to jog into the gym of Hartwick Academy,

He perused his surroundings as he made his way to his class. True to Hartwick standards, the gymnasium was just as frivolous as the rest of the school. The walls were glass so the general school population was able to easily see the bumbling attempts of physical prowess these 18 year olds had to show them. The floors were a spotlessly shined linoleum that was so clean that Merlin could see the reflection of his own face clearly.

As he reached his class, Merlin became aware of the wary glances the other students gave him, leaving a generally wide berth for him as he passed through. He saw Arthur and his friends on the periphery of his vision, clad in white t-shirts and black knee length shorts, whispering among themselves. They sniggered and Merlin firmly looked away. He was definitely going to have to find some way of returning the favor to his king, he'd just need the right time to execute a proper plan.

"How was the disciplinary room? I'm told its very roomy in there." Arthur called out as Merlin passed the last member of his little group. It reminded Merlin of how Arthur would stand in between his knights during practice and mimic Merlin's attempts at practicing how to wield a sword.

Merlin's lip curled into a smile, 500 something years left him with a lot of time to practice. He was anything but helpless. Merlin ignored the jibe, and continued on his way to the back of the class to pink up knee pads.

"Aww, don't run away now!" Arthur called after him, his voice mirroring that of an owner talking to a rather disobedient pet. Merlin sighed, muttered a quick apology to Keyes under his breath, and without turning around, whipped back a retort that he barely even thought over before it left his mouth,

"Run? From you?" Arthur made an exaggerated show of relief, pretending to wipe his brow of sweat.

"Oh thank god. I thought you were deaf as well as dumb." If Merlin could have rolled his eyes into his head, he would have. He turned to face Arthur and that stupid cocky, obnoxious, infuriating and downright annoying smile. The smile that he waited to see for almost 600 years, He smiled himself. All teeth and that annoying twinkle in his eye that he knew riled Arthur up for whatever reason.

He crossed an arm across his chest and brought his other arm up over it, almost like a T, stretching it and spoke casually to Arthur.

"Look, I've told you you're an ass, I just didn't know you were the Head Ass."

Arthur stared at him in momentary shock and then laughed at his boldness.

"I could end you in an instant you know." Arthur said, cracking his knuckles, and rolling his shoulder, as if getting ready to punch someone. Merlin wondered briefly where the _bloody hell_ the teacher was, while he was on the verge on a frontal assault again, before replying.

"And I could do it in less."

Arthur scoffed, disbelief marring his face, though the smile on his face belied his amusement at finding someone so willing as a target. Merlin assumed that it had been a while since someone had been willing to go head-to-head with him, seeing as he was the head master son and the son of a conglomerate giant.

"Well, come on then," Arthur spread his arms wide, accepting anything Merlin would care to throw at him, tossing the ball he was holding to his friend.

"I warn you though, I've been trained in martial arts since I could walk." He raised an eyebrow, daring Merlin to do his best.

Merlin laughed at the familiar line and cracked his neck, mirroring Arthur's ability to crack his knuckles.

"And how long have you been training to be a prat then?" He asked, relishing the look of annoyance that crossed Arthur's face whenever Merlin failed to quail in fear of Arthur's threats. Arthur put his hands on his knees, assessing Merlin's body language, perplexed at his ability to retort without fear of retribution.

"You can't talk to me like that, I'm the head master's son!" Arthur looked indignant at the blatant disrespect that Merlin was showing him. So different from the general acquiescence that he was awarded for his parentage.

Merlin feigned a look of repentance.

"Oh sorry. How long have you been training to be a prat, sir?"

Merlin cracked a mocking smile at the unwilling twitters of laughs of surprise that came from the class at Merlin's quick rebuttal. Arthur's expression soured, as he motioned his friends forward with the casual flick of his head. It was only now that Merlin noticed they were all carrying dodge balls and had a sinking feeling that he had become Morris' substitute in target practice.

He couldn't help but grin as Arthur and his friends began hurling the balls at him, and even while holding his arms in front of his face, Merlin started to laugh.

It was the same as it always had been.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Merlin sat in the front seat of Keyes' car, holding both hands up in front of him, palms up in surrender. His body was aching from the assault Arthur had wreaked upon him earlier.

"I didn't start it! Honest!"

Keyes let out an annoyed huff, as he gave Merlin the side eye he had been famous for in Camelot.

"Oh I don't doubt that. Arthur has the uncanny ability to get into altercations with scholarship students. Funny enough, he never seems start them. They just appear to lash out at him specifically for no reason." Keyes sarcasm made Merlin smile and Keyes dryly noted it.

"You're over 500 years old, Merlin. You'd think that brawling with teenage boys would be beneath you."

Merlin shrugged, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

"What can I say, Something about Arthur makes me want to smack him upside the head. Gods knows he's smacked me enough times. With multiple apparatuses I might add." Merlin suddenly noticed that they had driven past their apartment.

"Hey! That was our building! You just drove past it!" Keyes laughed as Merlin pressed his face against the window, watching their street pass by.

"Brilliant deduction Merlin. We have indeed passed our house." Merlin rolled his eyes.

"Yes. But why have we passed it?"

"We're going to Drayce Hotel. There's a charity ball being held there tonight. I thought you'd want to see what Arthur's modern day Kingdom looks like."

Merlin stared at Keyes, whose eyes were starting to crinkle in laughter at the look of surprise on Merlin's face. He looked down at himself then back at Keyes.

"But - but it's a formal event and I'm sitting here in my school uniform! That's hardly appropriate I would think." Keyes gestured over his shoulder to the back seat.

"Well, that would be why I popped out at lunch to get you this, while you re-acquainted yourself with Arthur." Merlin looked in the back and saw a garment bag hanging in the back by the left window. He looked at Keyes again. amazed that Keyes was so willing to help Merlin.

"You bought me a suit?"

"Yes. Now if you don't mind, put it on. We'll be there in 5 minutes and I'd rather there not be a half naked teenager in my backseat when we arrive."

Merlin's eyes widened as he scrambled into the backseat, fumbling with his shirt as he went.

When they did indeed pull up to the hotel 5 minutes later, Merlin felt his jaw drop for the second time that day.

True to Uther's personality, Drayce Hotel was every bit as extravagant as Camelot had been back in the day. It was the absolute vision of opulence. It towered over the city in 60 stories and glistened a chrome silver. The logo of Drayce Inc. came in the form of large cursive "D" at the peak of the building, a triangular point.

In front of the building, a red carpet had been rolled out, and guests milled about, entering the party that had been arranged for the charity event.

As Merlin stepped out, he barely registered Keyes handing the car over to the valet, his mind anchored by the decadent gold and red flags flying majestically at the top of the building and over the entrance, with a roaring lion in the middle of the flag. His mind involuntarily flew back to the day that Arthur had officially been presented as Crown Prince of Camelot. The food, the people, the pure unadulterated feel of Camelot - Merlin shook his head.

This was not Camelot. Camelot hadn't existed for over 500 years. He was damned if he was going to start behaving like some pre-historic relic, constantly reminiscing about the "good ol' days", as the American's so succinctly put it.

Merlin squared his shoulders and followed Keyes' motions to follow him inside the hotel.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Luxury had the tendency to inspire both a crippling sense of envy and disgust in the general public, though the latter could easily be explained by the envy turning to jealousy.

While it would seem superfluous to have ice sculptures in the likenesses of the hosts, peppering the venue, it simultaneously inspired longing for the ability to be able to decide to do something so frivolous.

Uther, whose modern name was Tony Drayce, according to Keyes, entered the hall as Merlin admired the sculpture of Tony's face. He looked as proud and regal as Merlin remembered him to be.

Today, he was dressed in a black suit, accessorized by gold cuff links, tie clip and velvet smooth black leather shoes. His hair, though thinning slightly, was combed in a professional side part reminiscent of James Dean and was flattering on him.

Involuntarily, Merlin drew a deep breath and let it out as a whoosh of air as his eyes landed on Tony's son. Standing next to his father, at 6 feet tall, (reincarnation had boosted his height), was Arthur Drayce, dressed in a black tuxedo with a grey waist coat and shiny black pointed shoes.

His hair, long and shaggy while in school, had been coiffed to a rakish loose style that brought out the vague air of mischievousness he managed to carry around with him, despite his best efforts to look professional.

Suddenly, Merlin felt quite shabby. He knew he didn't look bad. In fact, if he was honest with himself, he looked pretty good. He wore a grey suit, with a black shirt and tie. It was tailored to fit his (admittedly skinny) body like a glove, contoured to his every angle. He wasn't short either. Probably clocking in at around 5'11, by no means short, but not tall either he supposed.

All around him, women flounced past wearing expensive gowns and jewelry. Men wore watches more expensive than cost of the down payment of a house. Not for the first time in the presence of Arthur in such events, Merlin felt, quite distinctly, that he didn't belong. His eyes searched out Keyes, who stood next to a man Merlin recognized as the acting Principal of Hartwick Academy while Tony Drayce attended to the duties of being CEO to a multi-billion pound company. At his questioning glance, Merlin was about to tell Keyes that he was leaving when Tony strode to the center of the stage in the front of the hall and tapped the microphone, securing everyone's attention.

"Evening ladies and gentlemen. Tonight, Drayce Hotel is honored to host for The Cure for Cancer Society their 15th annual Charity Ball. May their quest for the cure prove fruitful and may the world be rid of the cursed illness in its entirety."

The crowd cheered and raised their glasses in a toast to the notion. Merlin raised his glass as well,as he glanced around the room, seeing Arthur do the same, on hand in his trouser pocket, the other raising his glass high. Tony continued his speech as he lowered his glass.

"As it were, tonight is a night dedicated to inspire hope for the future, so in keeping in line with the theme, I would like to formally introduce the heir to Drayce Corporations, my son, Arthur Drayce!" Tony spread his left arm out wide, inviting his son to join him on stage. Arthur stepped next to his father and bowed slightly at the waist as the party goers enthusiastically clapped for him. Merlin heard them murmuring and found himself tuning in to hear the end of whispered conversations.

"...definitely a 10. That hair of his is so HOT."

"Do you suppose he'll take over the company now or after he's finished his schooling?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Tony isn't stupid. There's no way he would leave the company in the hands of a complete child."

"Mmmmm. Hello. If he needs a girlfriend, I am more than willing to take

"You don't suppose he's a 50 Shades of Grey kinda guy do you? I don't know how I'd feel about that."

Merlin heard an ungainly snort in response to the last musing.

" How about you worry about that if you ever end up in Mr. Perfect's bedroom."

Merlin scoffed at the last conversation, he had to admit that Arthur most definitely looked good. He looked phenomenal actually . The suit made his blue eyes pop, nearly crackling in their intensity. His blonde hair, though, only served to make Merlin wince as he remembered smoothing it down as Arthur took his last breaths. He tried to focus on the Arthur stood in front of him.

Merlin watched Arthur give a small wave and bow again before he stepped off the stage and shook hands with the men waiting to congratulate him. As he did, his gaze roamed around the room, all at once sliding over to where Merlin stood and locking eyes with him.

The effect of it was almost electric, they both seemed arrested by the connection that their gazes held. Again, Merlin saw Arthur's eyes visibly darken, something knowing flashed through them and Merlin shivered noticeably under the weight of that gaze.

This time, however, it was Merlin who looked away first. He practically stumbled away, finding the table of lavish refreshments and leaning on it heavily, putting his drink down and scrubbing a hand over his face.

" Why is it that even after school, I have to run into your bony arse." Merlin jumped, turning around so fast that he nearly knocked Arthur's drink over to spill on his suit.

"Whoa! Easy. Didn't mean to scare you." He laughed as Merlin glared at him. "You'd think that nothing would scare you, seeing your behavior today."

Merlin huffed in annoyance and reached behind him to lift a cupcake off it and cram it into his mouth.

" I'm not afraid of anyone. I'm just not used to six foot tall prats sneaking up on me." Arthur studied his face for a moment, Merlin returned the look unflinchingly, and after a moment, Arthur shook his head and took a sip of his drink.

"You know," he said conversationally, watching Merlin's expression over the rim of his glass. " You'd think you'd be a bit more polite seeing as I've been appointed Heir apparent to a multi-national corporation right in front of you."

Merlin actually snickered, watching Arthur try to read his intentions off his face. Now and then, a steadfast habit through time, Arthur still tried to use his position to cow Merlin into obedience.

"Yeah. Key word being Heir. You don't own any of it yet. So as far as I'm concerned, you're still just a high school bully, Arthur Drayce." Arthur had the gall to look wounded at the accusation.

"A bully? Me? I've never -" Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"Morris?" Arthur looked at Merlin with a slight hint of unease.

"I was just breaking the bloke in. Surely you can see its just good natured ribbing between mates." He cleared his throat and took a swig of his drink.

"Sure. I'll keep that in mind when you try to 'break' me in." Arthur's eyes widened and he sputtered, choking on the gulp he had just taken, whacking his chest with a fist.

"What's the matter with you?" Merlin said, concerned, reaching out to thump him twice on the back. "Did you forget how to drink your water like a human being, Mr Heir Apparent?" Arthur shot him a dirty look as he pulled out a white handkerchief to dry his watering eyes and dry his lips.

"You are such- " a heavy hand descended on shoulder. Arthur turned around to see a middle aged, red haired man smiling at him. He was as tall as Arthur, if slightly hunched, with his hair graying around the edges.

"Arthur, my boy! Good to see you, good to see you!" The man reached out and shook Arthur's hand firmly with both of his. Arthur automatically smiled a clearly well practiced professional grin at him as he greeted him in response.

"Just came over to say congratulations, lad. It's not every day one achieves this sort of position. Of course, we all knew it would be you. It couldn't be anyone else. You deserve it! Still, hearing the title handed out in public is something else. Savour it while you can, Arthur Drayce. These days do not come again!" The man winked at Arthur, clapping a hand on his shoulder in a show solidarity and nodded in Merlin's direction before turning and heading off to another group of decidedly distinguished looking gentlemen.

Arthur turned back to Merlin with a grimace, face twisted in thought.

"Can't even bloody remember the man's name." He huffed as he blew out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. "Honestly, I wish Father would let me attend more meetings. How am I supposed to run the place if I can't name a single person out of the employees?"

The question was clearly rhetorical, but it pleased Merlin that while Arthur was rather uncouth in his treatment of others, he had his priorities sorted and understood what the gravity of his position was.

"Is the 'Heir of Drayce Incorporated' allowed to use language like that in public?" Arthur had the grace to look chastised.

"Stop saying that?"

"Saying what?"

"Heir to Drayce Incorporated."

"I thought you wanted me to remember who you were?" Merlin knew he was mouthing off, but if he were honest, he was enjoying himself immensely. This time, Arthur wasn't a monarch and societal rules dictated that he could speak to a 'classmate' (Merlin used the term very loosely), as an equal.

Arthur eyed Merlin with annoyance, working out what exactly was the enigma that was the new transfer student.

"You know, something about you makes me wanna take -" Arthur grabbed a dessert spoon off a passing waiter's tray, "this spoon and whack you with it."

Merlin found his lips quirking involuntarily in a smile.

"Wouldn't be the first time, would it?" He laughed and then cut himself off with a small contained gasp. He cursed himself, he kept slipping. He hoped Arthur hadn't caught it, but true to the Royal blood in his veins, Arthur missed nothing.

"What?" Merlin shook his head and then made to go to the refreshment table.

"Nothing. I'm just gonna go get myself one of the sandwi-"

He cut off as Arthur grabbed his wrist, his hands easily trapping Merlin's. He whirled Merlin around to face him. As he did so, Merlin became aware of two things, first, was the fact that the man that Arthur had just finished speaking to was now walking towards them. The second, and this was probably important, was that that same man was decidedly crazier looking than before and was waving a rather large gun at Arthur's exposed back.

"Arthur Drayce!" The shrill scream startled the previously oblivious party goers and shrieks erupted from all corners of the hall as people ran out in droves. Merlin heard, rather than saw the gun go off, in time with the man's yell, the loud bang prompting him to yank Arthur towards him using the same wrist he was holding.

"DUCK!" Merlin yelled as he pulled Arthur down to the ground, covering his body with his own, Arthur pressed on to the floor behind a pillar that they had conveniently been standing close to. Merlin breathed deeply as he saw the man take aim and fire again, the first shot having missed and whispered a quick incantation, the words flowing out him like water. The bullet flew high in the air and embedded itself harmlessly in the pillar some 15 feet high.

Within moments, the banquet hall had been entirely emptied of it's guests, save for Arthur, his father and his associates, Keyes and Merlin. Merlin peeked out from behind the pillar as the man stared at his gun in confusion, grunting in pain as he was tackled by 3 very large security guards who managed to wrest the gun away and wrench his arms behind his back. He lunged forward, yelling despite the restraints.

"Arthur Drayce! You spoiled, uncultured brat! How dare you! How dare you and Tony do this to me! I put 30 years of blood, sweat and tears to this business!" His eyes had glazed over with kind of crazy Merlin had last seen in the eyes of one very misinformed Nazi officer in Auschwitz over 60 years ago. "I gave you 30 years! I made it into what it is! Me! How dare you name Arthur as the heir?! A snot nosed brat?! You think he can do better than I could? We'll see! I'll enjoy watching this hellhole burn to the ever fucking ground! I'LL DESTROY YOU ARTHUR DRAYCE!" His screams grew shriller and shriller, even as he was dragged further and further away.

Merlin sighed, relieved that he was gone, the tension seeping from his rigid form.

"Oi. It's great that you're relieved and all, but maybe you wanna get off me here? If it's not too inconvenient of course."

Merlin started in shock and looked down. Some how, in the craziness, he had shoved Arthur to floor and ended up kneeling over Arthur's face down figure, knees on either side of his rib cage but not exactly touching. His suit was all rumpled, his dress shirt having come un-tucked from his pants, much like Merlin's own. His eyes traveled up to his knees and met Arthur's smug eyes and practically vaulted off him.

If this had been the old Arthur, he would have instantly -

Oh.

Merlin winced as he found himself in a rather strong head lock. Arthur had been fond of doing this back in the day. He almost thought the universe might have brought back Arthur with twice as more strength, just to spite him. His grip tightened as Merlin struggled to free himself.

"Knock me over? Fine. I can live with if you think you can climb on me in public without repercussions, you have got another thing coming Merlin!"

Merlin froze.

Arthur's arms went slack at the feeling of Merlin's body going limp in his grasp. Merlin ducked out and rounded on Arthur.

"What did you just call me?" Arthur seemed baffled at Merlin's sudden intensity.

"Merlin, I think. Although you can hardly blame me. It's only a letter off anyway." Arthur shrugged, then noticed how positively pale Merlin had gone.

"Oi. Are you alright?" Arthur peered at Merlin's colorless face and into his wide sky blue eyes. "You're as pale as a ghost." Arthur stepped back annoyed and held his arms out to Merlin in a sort of 'look at me' gesture.

"For Christ's sake, Marlin. Look. You're not dead." He pointed at Merlin and spread his arms again to indicate himself. "And I'm very much not dead, so would you please bloody relax already." Merlin's eyes widened as the severity of the recent events hit him. Suddenly, he felt nauseated and claustrophobic in the wide, spacious banquet hall. His eyes met Keyes' alarmed ones, and dimly, he registered Arthur asking if he were alright again.

But he wasn't. He felt deathly cold, his hearing sounded muffled and he felt as if he were suffocating. Like he couldn't breathe.

And without another word, Merlin turned and ran out of the hall, his coat jacket flaring out behind him. He barely even noticed Keyes sprinting out of there after him.

"Merlin? Merlin!" Arthur stared perplexed at Merlin's rapidly receding figure and that of his adoptive father.

. . . . . . .

Later that night, as Arthur was escorted to his car, still thinking about the night's events, he caught sight of Marlin and Keyes. The former, leaning on the hood of Keyes car, arm over his eyes and tears streaming down his face. And as Arthur saw extend as arm over Marlin's shoulder's, Arthur had the uncanny feeling that the tears that ran so unchecked down Marlin's face, were for him


	6. Morgana

Chapter 6

Merlin may very well be immortal but that didn’t mean that Merlin was devoid of all the other mortal traits.  Embarras s ment , mortification and humiliation,  whatever  you  wanted to call it, was a frequent visitor in his life. 

He sat in Keys' living room, hands over his face unwillingly reliving his mental breakdown at the hotel,

" O h for goodness sake's Merlin, it was just a few tears, hardly anything to be making such a fuss over. I'm sure Arthur didn't even notice. You know, what with him having survived an assassination attempt. " Keys' tsked at him as he brought over a midnight snack of hot chocolate and biscuits. It was about 11:30 PM, a full hour after that they had returned from the fiasco that had been the Drayce Family Charity Banquet. Merlin helped himself to the hot chocolate  and shot Keys' a look that dared him to continue that train of thought. 

"You've watched that boy grow up. You honestly want me to believe that Arthur wouldn't hold it against me?" Keys' couldn’t argue with that, so he settled for stuffing a cookie in his mouth. 

"Merlin."

"Mrghp?" Merlin looked over at him, blinking owlishly whilst trying to swallow the mouthful of cookie. 

"We need to talk about what happened tonight. In the hotel."

It was astonishing how fast Merlin's expression changed from a child-like youthful cheeriness and evolved into an expression one so haunted by grief that it seemed to be the root of his  existence.  It almost convinced Keys off from continuing the conversation. 

Almost. 

"Merlin, I know you don't want to talk about this, but it's important that you do. In fact it’s vital. Arthur has grown up as the heir for Drayce Incorpor ation. The company is at least 100 years old, Arthur's been a target of kidnappings and assassination attempts since he was a child. You can't have a panic attack every time Arthur faces danger." 

Merlin put his drink down as Keys finished what he'd wanted to say. He could tell that it had taken some courage to do it. This version of Gaius seemed to recognize that though he remembered his previous life, he could not hope to know the man that Merlin had become in the years since that life. He hated to admit it but Keys  had a point. He'd spent over 500 years internalizing the guilt and pain he'd felt when thinking about the decisions and actions he'd made and enforced during Arthur's woefully short life. If he didn't speak about it at some point, he was afraid he would lose his mind. Centuries with no other company but your own mind made for some rather morbid ruminations of the subconscious. 

"You have to understand, even if I try, I have no idea where to begin. " Keys nodded, not moving beyond that. It felt like Merlin was similar to a skittish animal that would bolt the second it realized what was happening. Merlin had to force his voice past the lump in his throat to talk. 

"I made...mistakes. When I worked for Arthur, Kilgrrah made sure to tell me the prophecies surrounding my destiny and Arthur's. I never paid attention. Every decision I made, I made on the validity of my own mor ality. I was warned about Mordred and Morgana and Lord knows how many other things that happened. But I ignored all of it because I thought that this is a dragon that’s lived in a cave for the last 50 years, what could it possibly know about the present day. What did it even know about me? But then when Arthur died, and Camelot fell, I knew it was because I refused to listen. Went against the wisdom of a being that had lived thousands of years before me and would probably live a thousand years more after me. " Merlin realized he was sweating and knew that he couldn’t continue. It was too much. Thinking about everything he'd done wrong and things he would probably do wrongly again was too much for him to contemplate again. 

"I'm sorry Keys' I can't do this. I can't talk about this yet. It's too – I don't – Every time I close my eyes I hear the screams of the soldiers on the field and the crying of women and children in the city. Arthur's blood, or the last words he breathed into my face. It's not something I'll forget for as long as I live." He smiled bitterly at the slightly alarmed look Keys' was giving him. "As you and I both know, that’s a long time."

Merlin closed his eyes and leaned back against the couch as Keys laid a tentative, comforting hand on his shoulder for a lack of words. 

Even with Arthur alive and well in front of him, his days at Camelot dogged his heels, a constant reminder of his failures and incompetency as Arthur's silent adviser. 

****

The next morning, Merlin was vaguely aware of being watched, he peeked out of his comforter and saw the digital clock blinking back at him with the number 7:00 AM. A light knocking made him prop himself up on his elbows to see Keys' looking at him bemusedly, clad in snow white pajamas. 

"Keys' its 7AM. What could we possibly have to do this early on a S aturday morning? I think I deserve to sleep in at least once in 500 years. "

"Any other day I would agree, I would be in my own bed right now if it weren't for the fact that for some daft reason Tony Drayce is standing in my living asking to speak to my son. Which happens to be you." Merlin's eyes lost their weariness and snapped open as he shot up into a sitting position. 

"You have to be joking. Tony Drayce? Here?" Merlin pointed to the floor indicating the apartment. Keys nodded.

"Now?" Merlin refused to acknowledge that his voice rose 2 octaves in nervousness.  Keys nodded again and shifted to the side slightly just enough so that Merlin could see the two men that Tony kept at his side. He rolled out of bed and rummaged through the growing pile of clothes and managed to pull on some pants and a random white dress shirt. It was too early to have worry about being smartly dressed he groaned internally as he padded out of his room to face Arthur's father.

He turned as Merlin entered, eyes instantly assessing him and Merlin had to resist the urge to bow in his presence. Force of habit he presumed. 

"Marlin Keys." Merlin winced. The entire persona was a lie. 

"Yes sir." He responded, it was odd addressing him respectfully when he had at least 500 years over his age. His blue eyes met Merlin's.

"We were not introduced last night. An error surely, on Arthur's part .  Of course, the extenuating circumstances did make it rather difficult to accomplish that. " Merlin nodded. Tony Drayce wasn’t making conversation but rather stating the facts.  It was honestly fascinating to Merlin how the man still commanded the same respect that he had when he was King. 

" I was rather impressed, however, " Tony continued as he circled Merlin, sizing him up much like a bird for roasting. Merlin found that he didn’t much care for it. 

" You, a classmate that Arthur as sures me he had just met 6 hours prior, willingly puts my son's safety before his own. Why? How does this benefit you, I asked myself. If Arthur's information is correct, then I am correct to infer that you and my son are not on particularly good terms. You tried to hit him y esterday which had you placed in the disciplinary off ices." Merlin flushed. It wasn't as if he had intended to let things progress to that extent. Once again, Tony was talking at him, not to him, and it was growing old fast. 

"So tell me then. You're justifiably intelligent, in possession of sound reasoning skills, brought up in the foster care system but you've found yourself a home with Dr. Keys, whose own finances are proficient for a comfortable, so the motive behind your actions for my son remain a mystery. What was your reason for facing the possibility of death for a boy you not only, do not get along with but barely know? "

This was a genuine inquiry behind the spoken profiling that was happening. Merlin thought about it for a second, he couldn’t very well tell him that he was the magical counter part to his son who was the O nce  and F uture King, and that it was his destiny to fight for him, to protect him. He would have to improvise a bit. 

"Potential, sir." Merlin tried to  keep his answers short and succinct. He got the distinct impression that this version of Uther preferred brevity to the flowery compliments and alliterations that his previous incarnations valued. He was rewarded for his insight when Tony raised an eyebrow, signaling his interest. so Merlin continued. 

"Arthur is strong-willed, granted that he and I do not see eye to eye on certain matters, I see in him a very honest person. Even if he can be a bit abrasive, I don't believe him to be the kind of person that lies on a regular basis. As a person who grew up being routinely lied to, it’s a quality I appreciate if I meet someone who possesses it. As for why I chose to save him, I did it simply becau se I could. I would like to think that if I faced the same kind of situation, someone would be willing to do the same for me."

Merlin fell silent, he was aware that his words were being weighed, he snuck a peek at Keys standing behind his lackeys and he just shrugged. Clearly he had no idea why this was happening right here, right now either. It wasn't exactly a conversation that need urgency. Merlin watched as Tony Drayce turned to his men and took the jacket they offered him, pulling it on decisively. He strode to the apartment and paused to look at Merlin, the look contemplative. 

"It's strikes me as odd that Arthur said the same thing to me, when asked of his opinion of you and why you would save him." Merlin looked at him in surprise, looking between him and Keys who cocked an eyebrow that for some reason made Merlin squirm as if he'd done something he shouldn't have. He'd have to examine why later, he realized as Tony beckoned to him impatiently tapping his foot.

"Well come along then." Merlin's look of confusion made Tony sigh. 

"I can see that this is going to take some work. Marlin, could you perhaps make yourself presentable. You can't possibly start your first day of your internship at Drayce Incorporated dressed like that, now can you?" Clearly Tony was not expecting any argu ment on this front, so Merlin quickly ran into his room to dress presentably and raced out the door after Tony, waving good-bye to a yawning Keys' clearly intently wishing to go back to sleep. 

10 minutes later they had been neatly transported to the headquarters of Drayce Incorporated. He followed him inside, gaping at the vastness of the buildi ng , all the way into a glass elevator, stopping on the 18 th floor. They walked out onto a hallway that was outfitted with lush red carpet and two sets of door on either end of 20 ft long corridor. One end had 10 ft tall oak double door and the other an equally tall glass door which led into a lobby of sorts. 

Tony began walking to the oak door and pushed in without so much as a knock. Inside the luxurious door, awaited a not so luxurious scenario. The young Arthur Drayce was drowning in paperwork. This was not a metaphor, Merlin nearly snorted in laughter at the sight, Arthur, who shot him a dirty look, w as standing trying to keep four different stacks of paper from falling on the floor. 

"Ah, Arthur," The man in question looked up, hair askew, wearing a white button up with the collars out of proper fold and sleeves rolled up. "This is your new P.A intern. I expect you to properly educate him on how to complete his job satisfactorily. " He paused and seemed to really look at Arthur, tearing his gaze away from the open appointment app on his  smartphone. 

" Remember to finish this by lunch. you have 5 hours." With that he promptly turned around and exited the office, leaving Merlin and Arthur entirely alone for the first time since they had met only one day earlier. For a moment there was only the sound of shuffling paper and then finally.

" Well? Don't just stand there gawking! Help me!" Merlin seemed to unfreeze himself and ran over to catch a stack as it slid out from under Arthur's grasp. Once he caught it, he ran to the other side and halved the stacks and put it on the floor, safe from falling.  

"Why  on  earth are there so many files?" Merlin gasped as Arthur slumped into his chair and Merlin sat in the one on the other side of his desk. Arthur groaned and mussed his hands through his hair in frustration. 

"I don't even know why the hell I have to be sitting here digitizing files when I should be with Father going to board meetings and deal closings. Instead I'm sitting here like I have nothing better to do with myself."

Merlin  eyed Arthur's irritated form and suddenly realized something he hadn't before.

He was just a kid. 

He  barely possessed the reasoning skills of an adult and yet, at the same age, Arthur Pendragon had been forced to take over the rule of Camelot from his deceased father. Merlin found himself more understanding of Arthur's position both in the past and now. The struggle to seem competent was much harder when you barely had faith in yourself.

"Have you ever seen the Karate K id? It's obvious what President Drayce is trying to do." Arthur looked at him blankly, uncomprehending. 

"Karate – oh the movie with Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith right?" Merlin fought the urge to roll his eyes. 

"No, I meant the 1980s version with – oh never mind, the point is the same. " It figured that Arthur would only focus on things, even media, relevant to his own time only. He was  defin i tely not a person i nterested in the past. 

"The whole concept behind it was the fact that tiny, seemingly useless actions had greater payof fs in the end. " Arthur leaned forward on the desk, propping his chin on his palm. 

"So what you're trying to tell me is that my dad has some greater lesson behind all this useless crap he's been making me do?" Merlin shrugged and swung his feet, swiveling 360 degrees in his chair. 

"I don't know about that. The kid in the movie was  really determined to learn. I don’t know if you have that much willpower in you."

"Alright smarty pants, I'll do this, you go outside and find Eliza. She's the secretary, she'll get you started with the stuff you need to know." Merlin got up and walked to the door. 

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather I do I -" Merlin ducked as an eraser was thrown at him. 

"Better run Merlin, I'm going to be finished very quickly."

Merlin chuckled and walked out, closing the door behind him, muffling the sounds of Arthur's furious t yping.

He walked towards the opposite door and before he had crossed the halfway point, a woman opened the door and walked out, down the hallway towards him, heading to Arthur's office. 

She had waist length long black hair, pin straight with a few wispy curls framing her face, which was obscured by her squoval black and gold  s unglasses . She was tall, reaching to perhaps Merlin's  ear.  She wore a dress in deep maroon with ¾ sleeves and accented, minimal gold jewelry. 

Merlin moved to the right as she approached, to allow her to pass but suddenly found himself being manhandled up against the wall, one perfectly manicured hand up against his chest and the other grasping his wrist . For someone with such slight muscul ature, she was stronger than he'd anticipated. Then, she spoke.

"You." The word was spoken almost with awe. Merlin squirmed in her grasp. 

"Depends on who 'you' is." He said, trying to pry her hands off of him.

"Merlin." He  froze and watched as she  shifted her sunglasses up onto her head. Merlin blinked,  hardly believing what he was seeing.

" Morgana."

  



	7. Confusion

**Chapter** **7** **:** **Confusion**  

Merlin had had very few sizable interactions with the female half of the human race during his existence on the planet. Sure, he had regularly interacted with Gwen and Morgana even, when presented with the opportunity. However, his conversations with Morgana had tended to fall rather obviously into the hostile variety in nature.  

Now, as the fates would have it, he was staring Morgana in the face, without the faintest idea of which direction the current Morgana was leaning in despite very clearly remembering him from her days in Camelot. His wide blue eyes searched her mottled green ones, while there was surprise, there was – for the moment – no hostility in them.  

"Lords, it really is _you_." Morgana backed up, suddenly flustered and shakily took her sunglasses, placing them in her handbag. She bit her lips, eyes roving over his face. "How are you not ancient? I was told you couldn't die. That must mean you've been alive for _centuries_." The way she said it unintentionally made Merlin laugh quietly. Seeing her startled jump at the noise he was quick to explain.  

"It's been a while since someone addressed that issue with the correct amount of horror it should command." He straightened his shirt out and held his hand out to her.  

"Nice to see you, Mor-" He stopped, brow wrinkling in confusion. "Wait, that’s probably not your name anymore. What's your name now?" She ignored his proffered hand and actually semi-curtsied to him, to Merlin's astonishment.  

"It's Nerissa, Nerissa Drayce." She bit her lip and her glanced at Merlin, who despite having an inkling as to why she was behaving this way, was still floored by it. The Morgana he was staring at was almost – dare he say it - _blushing._ Well, perhaps that was a stretch. It was more like she was embarrassed. Before he could say anything on the matter however, Morga- Nerissa reached out and clasped one of his hands in hers, coming in surprisingly close to Merlin. So much so that he was having to come flush up again to the wall she had shoved him up against earlier.  

"Merlin - " The door down the hall opened and Arthur stuck his head out, bellowing Merlin's name. 

"MARLIN! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE – Nerissa? What the blazes are you doing?" He came out of his office, leaning on the door support of his office. Nerissa looked from Merlin to Arthur, her expression questioning before she retorted to Arthur with same wit she'd been famous for in Camelot.  

"Why, Arthur, it looks as though spending a morning in Dad's office has killed your common sense. I'm merely being social and introducing myself to someone who is clearly employed here. As etiquette would dictate. " Merlin swore he could see a vein bulge on the right side of Arthur's forehead, as he worked to calm himself.  

"You realize he's a minor right? He's a kid from my class, Dad made him my intern PA for the time being." Nerissa glanced at Merlin, mouth quirking up in a wry smile as she worked out the situation from the few tidbits Arthur had unintentionally given her.  

"Ah, he's the guy that was straddling you in public at the Charity Ball?" Arthur straightened, face indignant, whilst Merlin was certain his face had invented a new shade of crimson.  

"He was _not_ straddling me. He saved me from being shot in the face. The positioning was a by product of the situation." Nerissa shrugged and turned to Merlin, expression subtly turning from teasing into almost awe. He had never been more perplexed in his life.   

"Whatever helps you sleep at night brother dear. " Arthur sputtered incoherently at her as she adjusted her purse and perched her sunglasses on her nose. "I just came here to tell you that Father's invited those vultures to dinner again. So you had better come prepared." With that, she turned again and walked back out the way she had come, pausing in front of Merlin only long enough to put her hand on his shoulder, and telling him she would see him again soon.  

Merlin waved goodbye to her and turned towards Arthur only to jump in surprise when he found the man standing in front of him, eyeing him suspiciously.  

"Alright, out with it. What did you do? My mates have been trying to get her attention for years. So how is it that I send you to the secretary and come out to find you seconds away from being ravished by Nerissa?"  

Merlin could only laugh at him, seeing the bewilderment in his eyes. He shrugged, and shoved his hands in his pockets and walked away from the King incarnate towards the reception lobby. 

"Who knows? After all, I'm just Marlin." He pushed through the doors and walked to the reception desk, entirely missing the expression of slight recognition in Arthur's face.  

.     .     .    .    .    .     .     .    . 

By the time noon came around, Merlin sincerely thought Arthur looked like a corpse. He walked into Arthur's office, arms full of manuals and schedules.  

"Arthur, today you - " Merlin cut himself off abruptly as he caught full sight of his former master fully passed out the desk, all the paperwork done, face down on the keyboard _drooling_ for all the world to see. Merlin gave himself about 30 seconds to fully appreciate the fact that Arthur was totally at his mercy, and then decided to wake him up. He opened his cellphone and chose the most obnoxious ringtone he could find and played it at full blast.  

At the shrill ringing Arthur jolted straight up in his seat, salvia smeared to his cheek, eyes bleary and expression murderous. Upon making eye contact, Merlin put on his cheeriest smile, knowing it would drive Arthur positively mental.  

"Up and at 'em! Let's have you, lazy Daisy!" He said as he put his phone in his pocket, silencing the god awful noise. This time he did notice Arthur freeze at the statement. Merlin put his hands on the desk, leaning towards him. 

"Arthur?" 

But the young heir wasn't listening. Arthur didn't know why, but suddenly, his vision was obscured and when he could see clearly again, it seemed to him he was lying down, possibly on a bed of some kind, with large wooden bedposts and lavish red bed sheets. A figure pulled back what must have been curtains as bright sunlight assaulted his eyes, blurring the view of the person standing in front of him. A cheery voice suddenly proclaimed; 

"Up and at 'em! Let's have you, lazy Daisy!" He shook his head and the vision suddenly vanished, leaving him in his office again, with Marlin leaning uncomfortably close to his face, patting it. Arthur found himself suddenly annoyed, with no justifiable cause. He knocked Marlin's hand off, pinning the boy with an irritated expression.  

"What? I'm finished. For all your nosy, disbelieving nattering, I've proven you wrong. I actually finished _before_ the appointed time." He crossed his arms, refusing to acknowledge that he was gloating of such a minor accomplishment to a mere _intern._ He waited for the back tracking to Marlin's earlier statements, and when he heard none, he quirked an eyebrow when he found Marlin staring at his face.  

"What? What are you staring at? I couldn't possibly have impressed you with a such a small demonstration of my determination could I?" Merlin resisted to roll his eyes, and touched his left cheek with his index finger.  

"You've got something, right here." Merlin said somewhat, if he were to admit, mockingly. Arthur blanched and used the palm of his hand to scrub at it. He looked at Marlin, trying to gauge if it was gone or not by using his computer screen as a mirror. Merlin snickered to himself, somehow he was comforted by the fact that this version of Arthur was a lot less put together in his private moments.  

"I didn’t take you for a drooler Arthur." He leaned against the desk, watching Arthur try to scrape it off, leaving only white residue on his cheek. Arthur shot him a dirty look. 

"I didn't sleep well last night, don't for a _second_ think that this is normal behavior for me. The heir to Drayce Incorporated sure as hell doesn't sleep on the job." The last line was said so much pride that Merlin was reminded of all the instances where Arthur had used the excuse of "Well, you can’t surely think the heir to throne could be seen dressing _himself_ could you Merlin?" 

Arthur kept furiously rubbing his cheek, but really only succeeding in on spreading the mess. Merlin was once again painfully aware of how much of a child Arthur was to be taking on this role. He possessed a great amount of maturity where social etiquette and common sense was concerned. But his worldview and his ability comprehend his situation was limited to his age experience which was miniscule compared to the amount of experience his fellow board members and investors would have. If Arthur wasn't careful, he was going to end up a doormat.  

Finally Merlin decided to take pity on the boy. He sighed as if doing Arthur a favor.  

"You are such a dollop head - jeez, come here." Merlin grabbed a Kleenex from the box on the desk and wet it with some water from a conveniently placed water bottle and grabbed Arthur's face by his chin, his thumb resting unintentionally on Arthur's bottom lip. He gently rubbed the evidence of Arthur's midday nap from his face. It was only when he was done that Merlin registered that not only was Arthur silent but that he had gone entirely rigid in his grasp. He flicked his eyes minutely up to Arthur's eyes to see that Arthur's mind was going a mile a minute, clearly not knowing what to make of what was happening. Merlin realized that he had unknowingly fallen to the same methods of subservience to Arthur. While in Camelot, it would have been normal to wipe the stains of food, or whatever else from your Master's form, it was decidedly not the norm in 21st century Britain.  

 _Shit. Now I'm self conscious because the prat's self conscious. What do I do now?_ Merlin had now frozen in his position, wiping Arthur's cheek which had become clean at least a full minute ago, but Merlin had no idea how to explain his behavior, hence his continued wiping.  

"Oh my. Are we interrupting?" The words shocked Arthur so much that he fell backwards off of his chair while Merlin whirled around to find the source so fast he thought he might have given himself whiplash. 

At the door to Arthur's office stood Nerissa, a man whose face he couldn't quite see as he stood behind a very silent and very observant Tony Drayce. Merlin blanched and tried to come up with a reason for their position. Arthur chose this moment to haul himself up off the ground, blond hair and collar askew. Merlin internally groaned. His disheveled appearance fed a rapidly solidifying assumption of their behavior.  

"Father. What are you doing here?" Arthur asked, unwittingly avoiding Merlin's eyes and focusing on the man standing behind Tony.  

After a moment of silence, Tony placed a hand on the shoulder of the man. He wore a blue blazer over a white shirt and straight black pants, with clearly expensive shoes. His attire bespoke of a cultured and poised man. The face on this person however. displayed the exact opposite. His smile, cheery and dare Merlin say it, _flirty,_ was wide and sat naturally on his angular face. His cheekbones were sharp and high, with piercing, mesmerizing dark eyes that gazed at him from under his stylishly shaggy hair.  

It was all Merlin could do to not physically throw himself at this well dressed person and hug him.  

"Arthur. I want you to meet the man who will eventually be your vice president. Gavin MacLeod." Gavin stepped forward and shook Arthur's cautiously extended hand.  

By the heaven's, Merlin was looking right into the face of the knight who had been the reason he'd likely spent more than half of his time in Camelot in the stocks.  

 _Gwaine._  


	8. Who Knew?

**Chapter 7: Who Knew?**

 

 _I'm exhausted._ Merlin sat at alone at a table in the company cafeteria with a plate of Thai noodles and a large glass of water. He stretched back letting his head fall back, sighing and willing the tenseness in his neck to go away.  

That had been a shock, to see Gwaine suddenly appear in front of him. Merlin knew that getting involved with Arthur would lead to run in's with the rest of the people he'd met with in Camelot, but the speed at which he was being bombarded with people was disconcerting. Both Gwaine and Morgana in one day. Running into her wasn't something he'd been counting on, although it was clear that for the time being she wasn't a threat to Arthur or anyone else. She clearly remembered her past as Morgana, even if she was currently Nerissa. _Gwaine_ on the other hand, that was like being sucker punched in the gut, seeing his brightly smiling face. The last time he'd seen Gwaine, he'd been scrying to see where and Percival had ended up when Arthur had died. Seeing Gwaine die had been worse than losing Lancelot, particularly after sending Arthur himself off.  

Merlin shook his head, sitting up and toying with his food. Thinking about Camelot and what happened was making his head hurt. He was better off focusing on the present. Like his Mother would have told him, it was no use crying over spilt milk. Merlin was suddenly pulled from his thoughts by someone pulling out the chair in front of him, feet scraping the floor loudly and sitting in front of him. He looked up to see Gavin sit down, a tray of fried rice and Chinese sauteed chicken.  

As Gavin began to eat with gusto, Merlin stared at him, unable to conjure up a semblance of casual conversation. But true to the Gwaine that Merlin knew and loved, Gavin looked up at him and smiled cheekily. 

"Hello. Nice to meet you, I'm Gavin McLeod, and you are?" He extended his right hand and warmly shook Merlin's hand. Once that was done, Merlin tried to look casual, raising his fork and eating his food before speaking.  

"Marlin Keyes. Not to be rude or anything, but why are you sitting here having lunch with me?" Merlin watched the other man look at him surprised, as if he were asking a foolish question. Gavin raised one hand, index finger beset with a silver ring that bore a cross symbol, waving it up and down in front of Merlin's face. 

"Are you sure you're not daft? How could I _not_ eat lunch with you? For one, it means I don't have to eat lunch with Arthur and Mr. Drayce. They're nice enough people but not really good eating company you see." Gavin said the last sentence whilst leaning forward, as if letting Merlin in on a secret. Then he leaned back and gave Merlin a once over.  

"Besides, you're interesting. I've been watching Arthur for a while, and in the office he's a beacon of propriety so for him to be caught as he was today in an intimate moment, I just had to see what kind of person could do that." 

Merlin felt as if his cheeks were on fire, his face felt hot as he hastily explained to Gavin.  

"No, no of course not! You've got it all wrong! There's no way that Arthur and I – oh for goodness sake's I just met him yesterday." Gavin raised an eye at that statement.  

"Well that's interesting then. IF you've only met yesterday in school, then how is it that you potentially allow yourself to be killed in Arthur's place, and then appointed to his PA the very next day? This is more curious-er as I look at it." Under a scrutinizing look from the older man, Merlin crossed his arms, annoyed of being questioned like this.                                                                                 

"You'll forgive me if I object to being interrogated on the sly Mr. McLeod. If you have a question come right out and say it. I dislike being manipulated." The vice president's eyes widened fractionally at being accurately sussed out. He threw his head back and laughed, a deep, low sound that almost seemed to rumble. Merlin was caught off guard, Gavin seemed to be different than the Gwaine that he was accustomed to .                             

"Ohhh, Arthur caught himself a sharp one." Gavin continued to eat his meal as Merlin felt his ears burn. He was almost 600 years old dammit, he should be able to stay calm, but for whatever reason he couldn't. 

"Listen -" 

Gavin shook his head, hands raised in surrender.  

"Look, I came at this all wrong. I just wanted to chat, you seemed like an interesting person. I saw you last night at the ball. I thought to myself, that's one scrawny kid, when I saw Arthur talking to you, and then when the lunatic with the gun came charging at you, you knocked Arthur flat on his arse before he knew what hit him. It saved his life, but you shouldn't have been able to manhandle him so easily. Arthur spent his life learning combative sports. He should have been able to stay upright or something, but instead he gets knocked down flat by a kid that took him out with a schoolyard trick. You have to understand, it's fascinating to see." 

Merlin felt his mouth quirk up in the smile in response to Gavin's analysis of Merlin's take down.  

"Well, Martial art's training means nothing if you've not developed the skills enough for them to become a reflex. I've been practicing a _long_ time." Gavin looked impressed, he raised his glass in a mock toast to Merlin. 

"Well then, good on you, that's some skill set you've got there mate. I'm well versed in boxing and fencing but I've only been doing it for 3 years. You've been practicing what, 5 years, at least." Merlin resisted the urge to snort.  

 _Try five_ ** _hundred_** _years._  

Gavin took a sip of his water and made a face, putting it back down and morosely stabbing at his food, which was almost finished.  

"Lord's what I wouldn't do for a tall glass of beer or guinness." Merlin suddenly had the mental image of the first time he'd met Gwaine, when he'd called for him to pass the pitcher of ale only to take it and smash on the nearest bloke's head, sadly proclaiming it a waste of the beverage. 

"It's only noon though." Gavin shot him an aggravated look.  

"And that's the best time to drink. When you can't tolerate this blasted robotic environment. All 'yes sir' or 'no sir'. What a bloody joke." Merlin leaned back in his chair and eyed the man in front of him. 

"I thought you were happy with your position. I'm seeing now that that assumption was wrong. You don't like Drayce Incorporated?" Gavin gave a non-committal shrug at first, sat straighter and looked around, as if watching out for someone. 

"Oh for crying out loud. It's not like I'm committing treason or whatnot. Let me tell you something. I like Drayce Inc just fine. I grew up dreaming I'd work here. But Tony, he's... he's not the most understanding boss. He's tried to recruit me a number of times before. But I always told him that I'd work for Arthur not him. I didn't think he'd actually go and appoint the kid as heir. Now I'm stuck babysitting an 18 year old who probably can't tell a contractual obligation from an obligatory contract." Merlin stifled his laughter, behind a hand, if Gwaine had known he'd be reborn like he'd have retched. Working under "princess" again would have annoyed him to no end. He'd always held out that he would be reborn as a King or Emperor of some great nation.  

Merlin nodded, reaching out to tap Gavin reassuringly on the arm.  

"I understand what you mean. But I think, if I were to work for someone than I would prefer that person to be Arthur." Gavin's expression soured.  

"That's because you and Arthur are - " 

"I'm telling you that's not it! We're nothing more than classmates." 

"Not even friends?" 

"I just met him yesterday. I don't even know if we get along yet, let alone being friends." Gavin watched as Merlin ate the last of his food and stood with him to throw the trash out. As they approached the garbage can, the glass of water in Merlin's tray slid forward, threatening to fall out. Gavin's hand shot out and grabbed the glass, steadying Merlin with his own body as he jumped from the sudden movement.  

"Oh thanks." Merlin righted himself and took care of both his and Gavin's tray. He turned around as he was finished and saw that Gavin was unusually focused on his hand. The hand that had touched his as he had righted Merlin. He began to reach out to him when he caught sight of Arthur and Tony Drayce standing at the entrance of the cafeteria. Tony was immersed in his phone, no doubt on a phone call with a business partner. Arthur on the other hand, was looking right at Merlin, with an unreadable look on his face.  

Merlin couldn't describe it, but very quickly he became aware that under the intense scrutiny of Pendragon heir, he was often beginning to feel like cornered prey. That gaze always seemed to be asking Merlin a question. 

One that he wasn't sure he could- or _would -_ answer.  

With difficulty he turned and focused his attention on the man behind him, shaking him slightly.  

"Gavin? Are you alright?" Said man looked up at Merlin like he'd been broken out of a particularly aggressive trance and blinked, disoriented.  

"What? Oh yes. I'm fine." He looked quizzically at his hand then at Merlin. "If you don't mind Merlin, I'm going to find a nice bar and drink myself stupid for the afternoon, I would invite you but seeing as you're a minor, I'm going to have to go solo on this one. Good day." Without another word, he turned and walked away from Merlin, pausing only in front of Arthur and Tony to say goodbye.  

Merlin watched Gavin leave the building. not registering the fact that as he walked away from him, Arthur was in fact walking toward him.  

"Marlin." 

Arthur gave him a once over and his unreadable expression turned into one of annoyance. 

"Honestly. Can't you eat without spilling it on yourself?" Merlin looked down and sure enough, there were the remnants of his lunch dotting his shirt. Most likely a result of the earlier _almost_ spill.  

"You try to eat noodles and not make a mess. It's an impossibility. Also, eating with enthusiasm is considered good form in Asian nations." Arthur rolled his eyes. 

"And what would you know of Asian countries. You've never been outside of London." 

 _I've been all over the world you clot-pole._ _You were the one that stubbornly wanted to stay in Camelot all the time._ Merlin smiled up at Arthur, who recoiled slightly at the plastic smile. 

"Has anyone told you, that you have possibly the strangest expressions?" Merlin shrugged. 

"It’s been mentioned once or twice." Arthur sighed and covered his face with his hands.  

"I'm tired already and it's only 1 PM. Come on, PA, we've got a lot of work to do." 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Gavin opened the door to his S-class Mercedes and sat heavily in the driver's seat, thunking his head against the headrest. He was feeling decidedly not well. Whatever dreams he'd been having in the last few weeks were suddenly feeling a lot more relevant. In the dreams he'd had so far, there had never been a face to put to the mysterious figure that he constantly followed around. He was irritated that even in his dreams Arthur was King. He briefly wondered what that meant about what he truly thought about the boy but then moved past it to focus on the young man in Arthur's office.  

In that moment where he'd touched Marlin, Gavin had had a flashback to one of his dreams, the one where he'd met Arthur and his suspiciously blank faced companion. Up until now, he'd never been able to put a face to the scrawny body, that wore the same outfit constantly, with the trademark red kerchief, to the point where he'd grown accustomed to calling him "Kerchief boy". Now, he was faced with this enigma of a person, whose name was Marlin but appeared in his dreams at Arthur's side faithfully. He'd heard him say hello often, in his dreams. 

In that dream where he's tossed in the air, made to fly across a table, only to come face to face with a boy he now finally realizes is called Merlin. There's that twinkle in his blue eyes as he takes in Gavin's predicament with an amused expression, like he'd expected no less.  

 _"Hello Gwaine."_  

And that had been his name in the dreams. Gwaine. He'd only heard it the Arthurian legends  that had been taught in University history classes. It seemed no one could separate fact from myth and so the world was stuck with conjecture and nothing to solve the paradox.  

Except that now Gavin was faced with the odd certainty that the boy he had just met was his best and possibly only true friend. And if his dreams were truth, then Marlin had a lot of explaining to do. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  

"Marlin! Where's the schedule for this Wednesday's lunch with the party from Berlin?" Arthur shuffled through papers on his desk, tossing files aside to locate the itinerary that he could have sworn he'd just put dow- 

A hand holding the very document he'd asked for suddenly appeared in front of him. He slowly put the papers he'd been looking in down and snatched the paper from the outstretched hand, 

"It was in the file marked, 'Wednesday Lunch Plans'." Merlin offered, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure with how much work Mr. Heir Apparent has to do, it's normal to be forgetful." Arthur hurriedly signed off on the itinerary before giving Merlin a scathing glare.  

"I did not forget where I put it. I was testing you. A good PA should know where their bosses documents are at all times, regardless if needed or not." 

Merlin mock bowed in response to the surly retort. 

"Oh of course, my liege, your word is Law. Anything else I could get you, your Lordship?"   

Arthur leaned back in his chair. 

"You're awfully cheeky for someone being paid to work for _me."_ His eyes held the same challenge that Arthur used when daring Merlin to talk back before in Camelot. 

"Fire me if you don't like it." Arthur smiled beigningly. He reached for the intercom, pushed a button and picked up the receiver.  

"Ah Mrs. Christie. I hope I haven't caught you at a bad time. I was wondering if I could send a new hire down for a little education in the HR Department. Oh, really? Well, thank you very much. I;m sure he'll enjoy himself too." Merlin was suddenly a tad frightened at the self satisfied look on Arthur's face once he had hung up the phone.  

"Marlin, I don't think I've allowed for you to _really_ understand what Drayce Incorporated is all about. Mrs, Christie is wonderful at her job. I'm sure you'll get along swimmingly. Off you go." Marlin warily backed out of the room, wondering what had gotten into the reincarnated King. 

. . . . . . 

2 hours later, at precisely 4 pm, Merlin walked back to Arthur's office, incensed at the man. He threw the door's open. 

"Arthur Drayce, you wanker." Arthur looked up from the computer screen and had to physically restrain himself from laughing aloud. Merlin's hair had been mussed up completely from constant ruffling, his cheeks were a deep pink from both the lipstick smudges on it and the amount of pinching he had most likely put through.  

"You did that on purpose!" Arthur feigned hurt at the accusation.  

"Me? I just helped you understand how the hotel works a little better. I can't help it if Mrs. Christie is a little enthusiastic around high school boys." He shrugged. 

"Enthusiastic? _Enthusiastic?_ She's a kissing demon disguised as an elderly woman with a sickening fascination with sugar biscuits!" 

Arthur actually threw his head back and laughed.  

"Well maybe now you'll understand who's wearing the crown in this relationship here, hm?" 

Merlin rolled his eyes and used the window opposite him as a makeshift mirror to fix his appearance. He caught sight of Arthur watching him out of the corner of his eye and made a split second decision. His eyes flashed golden and Arthur's mildly hot tea tipped over and spilt very pointedly in the area of his crotch.  

"Ouch!" The 18 year old jumped up, trying to hold his pants away from his skin. Merlin tried very hard not to laugh. This barely grazed the surface of all the things he'd gone through, from using spoons as assault weapons to the goblets lobbed at his head every morning when he would wake the prince for his day. Try as he might, Merlin couldn't bring himself to regret the petty use of his magic.  

"Well, the prat who's wearing the crown could do with some pointers on how to keep his attire from his food. Arthur scowled at him, crab walked out from behind his desk and went to a well camouflaged door on his right side. Merlin watched interestedly as Arthur opened it to reveal a closet full of clothes.  

"What could you possibly get up to in here that you would need to have a full closet _in your office_?" Merlin raised an eyebrow. Arthur flushed an unseemly pink as he pulled out a divider to change his pants behind.  

"Get your mind out of the gutter Marlin, it's nothing as salacious as what you're thinking. Sometimes I don’t have time to go home from here to my next engagement so I just keep a change of clothes here. " 

"Hey it's not _my_ mind in the gutter, that would be you. I never said a word about anything. I just asked a simple question." 

Arthur walked out of the closet and shut the door behind him, opting to clean up the mess on his desk.  

"You talk an awful lot of nonsense. It's like going in circles trying to get a straight answer out of you." 

"Probably because I'm not straight." T

he words slipped out in the middle of the back and forth before Merlin had a chance to filter his words. Evidently, it had caught Arthur by surprise as well, if the way he'd paused in between his wiping down of the seat and the desktop. To Arthur's credit, the pause lasted all of two seconds, before Arthur shrugged.  

"Not exactly what I meant, but no matter, it's not exactly pertinent is it?" Merlin leaned against the wall, watching Arthur carefully, for signs of discomfort. Merlin hadn't intended to tell him this, but it was beyond his control now. Truth be told, he'd known the moment that Freya had breathed her last, that he would never meet a woman that he would love like that. Never would there be a woman who would understand the burden of a half life. Living in the shadows, living in constant fear of discovery, living with the knowledge that no one, _no one_ , could possibly know the entirety of you and accept you for that. Until Freya. And with her death that possibility had floated away, much like her body on the ship that carried her body. He hadn't counted however, on realizing he was attracted to men. He hadn't caught on of course, until one day Gwaine had done a particularly spectacular swish of his hair and Merlin had swallowed hard, following the bobbing of his Adam's apple as he chugged his tankard of ale. Gwaine, clever clever Gwaine, had noticed Merlin staring and winked playfully. 

 _"Don't go falling in love now Merlin."_  

Merlin shook his head at the memory, willing it away. He was not even remotely willing to think about the flirtatious knight, especially when his incarnation was currently someone he knew.  

"You don't mind?" The blonde snorted in ungainly way that the King of Camelot would definitely not have done. He pulled out two more sheets of kleenex to thoroughly dry the surface.  

"Mind? What right is it of mine to mind? What you do with your... _self_ , is entirely up to you. You are after all, a consenting adult now and as such you don't require any permission to live by your own personal preferences. I just have one rule though." Arthur straightened up and tossed the dirty tissues in the waste basket across the room and turned to face his personal assistant, bracing both hands on his desk.  

"Try not to fall for me, I'll only break your little heart Marlin." Merlin rolled his eyes and pretended to retch. 

"Jesus, Arthur. I said I was gay, not blind." Arthur blinked at him, as if Merlin had grown two heads, so Merlin elaborated. "I have tastes too, you know. Usually they don't involve blonde industrialist heir's." Arthur waved the statement away. 

"My word. You're even more hopeless than I thought. Clearly you have no eye for quality." Merlin shrugged and went about going through the rest of the pile that Elizabeth had handed him in the morning.  

"Be that as it may, the heart wants what it wants." He sat at the small couch in the forefront of Arthur's office, spreading the papers on the table, to organize into a systematic grid of chronological order. He didn't register Arthur's presence until it was too late and Arthur's face was mere inches from his. 

The 18 year old boy was leaning across the table, his face far too close in proximity to Merlin's for comfort. His heart thudded loudly in his chest and suddenly he found his collar a tad too tight.  

"And you're telling me you feel nothing staring at this?!" Arthur pointed to his own face. Anything Merlin was feeling, and he downright _refused_ to analyze exactly what he had been feeling, melted away and was replaced with annoyance. This was Arthur, _of course_ he was just thinking about someone could resist his charms.  

Merlin leaned back and used his index finger on Arthur's nose to push the boy away from Merlin's face. 

"I'm not quite sure I follow Arthur, do you _want_ me to fall for you?" Merlin knew it was awful of him to delight in how awkward that one simple statement made him, but he wasn't going to lie. Watching the wheels in Arthur's mind turn in an effort to pull himself out of the metaphorical grave he'd dug himself into.  

 _This is turning out to be way more fun than I thought._  

 _. . . . . . . . . . . ._  

That evening Merlin and Arthur, after _hours_ of work, finally managed to wrap everything up enough to decide to call it a day. Merlin leaned back and stretched his arms out. It had been a pleasant turn of events to have something to do to occupy his time. And at least this time, it didn’t involve hours of polishing armor or mucking out the stables of Arthur's horse.  

At Arthur's beckoning they walked out of the office, turning the lights off behind them. They walked to the lobby, pushing the large glass door open.  

Behind the desk, sat Elizabeth, in the middle of gathering her things.  

"Ah, Elizabeth, are you leaving now as well?" Her head shot up, fumbling her phone and lunch bag which she had been putting in her bag. Her brown hair was slightly disheveled and her eyes darted from side to side, between Arthur and Merlin. 

Through Merlin's meeting with her earlier, he'd noticed the vague, jumpy nature she had about her. Despite being a talented and efficient secretary, she was simultaneously rather skittish. It struck Merlin as an odd combination but he supposed it was just how things were. After all, he'd been told there would never be another warlock as power as himself and yet he was continually plagued with the habit of tripping during important face offs and confrontations. Though admittedly the same habit had been the sole reason for his survival many times.  

If Arthur noticed his contemplative look that Merlin had adopted, he said nothing but instead invited Elizabeth to walk out with them. Arthur talked animatedly about some meeting they had had earlier this week and if Elizabeth had managed to get her hand on some contract and how important said document was.  

It was as she passed Merlin to walk behind Arthur that Merlin realized something was seriously out of place. Elizabeth's eyes turned pitch black and from her skirt she pulled an ornate silver dagger in one swift movement, silent and deadly and fully focused on Arthur. Merlin, with equal practice, grabbed her wrist, the one with the dagger and wrenched it behind her back, using his free hand to open his bag and force her, with a twist of his hand, to drop it into his bag. 

Just as the being that had possessed Elizabeth opened her mouth to scream, Merlin whispered, in his mind, a quick incantation.  

 ** _Forþ fleoge_**  

Elizabeth passed out his arms, and he quickly used his free hand, to wave it over her body, pulling the offending energy from her. A bright blue sphere reluctantly emerged from her mouth and Merlin wasted no time in crushing it in his palm, before calling Arthur's attention to the situation.  

"Uh, Arthur, sorry to interrupt your incredibly long one-sided conversation, but we've got a little bit of a situation. Miss Elizabeth appears to have fainted." Arthur whirled around to see Merlin standing behind him with his secretary in his arms, unconscious.  

"What the hell happened?!" 

"Hell if I know." It was astounding how easily the lies rolled off his tongue. In the amount of chaos in which Arthur to called an ambulance and called for Elizabeth's family to arrive, Merlin was allowed a certain leeway to examine the happenings. 

 _What the hell was a manticore doing trying to kill Arthur in full view of Merlin. Who else knew that Arthur was back? And would they try again?_  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do leave a comment! I love reading how you liked - or didn't like- (let's be honest here) the chapter. Suggestions are always welcomed here! Thank you! :)


	9. Rhain

  **Chapter 8: Rhain  
**

A manticore. A manticore _inside_ Drayce Incorporated. A manticore inside Drayce Incorporated targeting _Arthur._  

The implications of the short encounter were wreaking havoc on Merlin's mind. It had been years since he'd seen one and now after all this time, the first one he sees goes after Arthur? No, there was definitely something afoot here, something that spelled trouble for everyone involved. The problem was going to be how to investigate and still keep up the pretenses of a student.  

"Marlin? _Hello?_ Oi, wake-y wake-y." Merlin made a face as he realized Arthur was standing in front of him, waving his hand curiously in his face. He pushed the hand away, and Arthur's look of mild concern turned to one of quiet knowing, 

"What did her fainting get to you? She's fine you know, the doctors said something about anxiety and exhaustion."  

" _No,_ her fainting didn't get to me, I was just thinking." Merlin shoved his hands in his pockets, and  

"Careful with that, wouldn't want you to sprain something." Merlin's death glare only succeeded in making Arthur snicker even more.  

"You're such a child." Arthur shrugged.  

"Hey, I'm 18, I only get to be a child for a few more years until the corporate world sucks it all out of me. Make the most of it while you have it, right?" Merlin couldn't argue with that logic. They were in the front lobby of the Drayce Hotel, the upper floors of which were where the office's were located. The paramedic's had informed them the fact that her fainting had been nothing to worry about but that since she had yet to regain consciousness, it would be best to take her to the hospital regardless.  

As the ambulance drove off, they were left alone, save for the administrative staff, standing in the large lavish entrance as guests entered and left the premises, glancing only curiously in the direction of the departing ambulance. Arthur checked his wrist watch before looking up at Merlin.  

"Well, it's 8 o' clock now, and I have this _dinner_ at my house," He grimaced, clearly dreading the event. "So," The young boy gestured outside, "do you want me to call you a cab or...?" Merlin shook his head, holding up his hand with his wallet in it. 

"Nah, I'm just gonna take the subway, much faster. London traffic is no joke." Arthur grinned as he straightened himself out and motioned one of the administrative assistants in the back to bring him his stuff, soon she came back with a briefcase and handed it to him. 

"Can't argue that. Okay. Well, see you tomorrow then." 

"Tomorrow?" 

"Uh, yeah? Wait, you didn't think this was a one day thing did you?" 

Merlin seemed non-plussed as he struggled for an appropriate response. That told Arthur all he needed to know.  

"Oh no, you've got it all wrong. My dad was dead serious. You're literally my PA until he says otherwise, or you quit." There was a moment of silence where Merlin caught Arthur looking at him and that flash of _something_ zipped through his face. There one second and gone the next. Merlin shivered under the nonexistent chill in the lobby.  

"So are you?" 

"What?" Merlin looked confused at the question, Arthur fixed his cuffs. 

"Are you quitting?" 

"I mean, no but - " 

"Great!" He clapped Merlin heartily on the shoulder before exiting the doors to the waiting sleek black Audi waiting for him out front. Merlin followed him out, waiting him get in and then roll the rear black tinted windows down. "See you tomorrow, Marlin, 9AM sharp. Trust me, you get here any later and I'll send you to Ms. Christie again." Merlin very genially gave him the finger to the young heir's immense amusement as the vehicle drove away. 

Once the car was out of sight, Merlin shoved his hands back into his pockets and trudged out of the hotel towards the tube station, lost in thought. 

The fact that a manticore had shown itself was worrying. Worse still was the notion that it had managed to get to a member of Arthur's actual working circle. Not some nameless bottom rung worker but Arthur's _actual_ secretary. Manticores were hapless creatures by nature, propelled primarily by their own greedy goals and rarely having the necessary skills beyond rudimentary possession to accomplish said goals. The manticore that had gone after Arthur was definitely different than ones he'd seen before. This one had purpose and a specific action in mind. That grim determination brought Merlin to the equally grim conclusion that the creature hadn't been working alone. 

Rather he seemed to be a foot soldier or for a better term a low level assassin, sent probably unawares that Merlin was guarding his returned King. As he descended the slightly grimy station and veered left, cutting through the scores of people traversing the corridors towards the platform, Merlin realized he'd made a mistake. A crucial one. He should have kept the manticore alive, interrogated it, negotiated with it. Killing the thing only alerted the opposition that Arthur had someone next to him capable of defending him.    

Merlin muttered curses under his breath. This was ridiculous. He'd only _just_ found Arthur, why was everyone so intent on killing him? The train arrived and Merlin walked in almost on autopilot, nearly tripping over the gap and earning the irate looks of those he jostled. He inclined his head in apology, the woman who'd knocked into the hardest huffing and pointedly ignoring him. 

The warlock leaned back against a pole and settled in for the ride, a solid 15 minutes of pondering time. He couldn't take back what he'd done, the manticore was gone and so was any information it could have had. But since he'd killed it, he assumed the next point of action would be to assess the enemy, a move as much for him as it was for the other side. Neither knew who they were dealing with and that alone was enough to make him wary. Charging in blind had taught him quite soundly that it was only done Iif you wanted your behind handed to you on a silver platter. 

So he would wait. He would watch with rapturous attention to every detail and glean all the information from whatever method they would use to suss out their competition. 

The subway dinged, signaling the arrival of his stop and Merlin checked his pockets, making sure his wallet was still there, and walked towards the turnstiles. It was a gorgeous night, fresh and clear despite London's infamous smog of the day. There were no stars in the sky, a by product of the bustling city he was sure, it made him miss the quiet of the forests of Camelot, the tranquility of the night when man went to sleep and the forest woke, quietly wandering about.   

He stepped onto the well worn sidewalk, seeing the multitude of people passing by him, from every walk of life, every ethnicity and every lifestyle. It was still a source of wonder to him, the amount of freedom the passing years had awarded humanity. While it forgot magic and the mystic, it also forget the hierarchical system that had crippled its history. It ignored the precedents that told them to divide humans by their private choices and instead judge them by their actions. 

Women had grown increasingly stronger in the past 100 years and Merlin couldn’t help but think wistfully of Gwen and Morgana (before she had turned on them), and wish that they could see what their gender had accomplished, what they were _capable_ of. If only the people of yesterday had thought to open their minds and hearts to the possibility of co-existing without the need to dominate over the other.  

Beyond that, there was the advancement of personal freedom that Merlin found refreshing. Magic was no longer looked upon as something devil-begotten but as something to view with awe. A man with magic was seen as amazing, as something, _someone_ to be emulated. The first time Merlin had experienced that reaction in sharp contrast with the hysterical screaming he usually got, he found Iit hard not to let the overwhelming crush of emotions drown him.  

And still yet, there was sexual freedom, the freedom to choose who to love, and knowing that you couldn’t be penalized for it. Watching humanity blossom into the compassionate, and understanding community it had become would be Merlin's greatest joy and when he thought about it, it was the only thing that truly made him realize how old he was, how much the world had changed though he hadn't  changed in the slightest. 

He rounded the corner into a slightly darker street and noticed that in the 15 minutes he had been underground, the temperature managed to drop to slightly chilly levels. He drew his shirt collar up in an effort to dispel the discomfort each gust of wind blew through him.  

The road he was traveling through was more dimly lit than the previous main street. It also carried far less people, though it wasn't without them. He deduced he was near some kind of drinking establishment based on the amount of inebriated people stumbling past him, some choosing to pause and retch unbecomingly on the ground near the buildings lining the road. Shaking his head, Merlin continued on, stopping only once to ascertain the source of a noise behind him.  

While the noise was easily identified as a man falling into a trio of rubbish tins, Merlin caught sight of a shadow melting out of sight just as his eyes landed on it. He didn't linger on it and continued on his way, alert for anything else of the ordinary.  

Merlin had had many a year, alone, to focus on his craft and though he chose to do things the human way most of the time, it didn’t mean he let his skills fall into disrepair. In fact, he practiced more in those circumstances. He'd learned it primarily in Feudal Japan of the 1550s, under the tutelage of Hattori Hanzo and that of his son, Hattori Hanzo III. The elder was a kind man and yet his kindness was not to be mistaken for softness, for as the leaders of a Ninja clan, arguably one of the prolific, brutality and ruthlessness was just as desired and in fact, preferred.  

Under his careful teachings, Merlin learned to approach without notice and to also notice approach without fail. He was taught the places in the body that lead to quickest death and those places that aided in the sharpest of pleasures. When a Kunoichi and another Ninja warrior came to teach him of these skills, Hanzo had said with a wink that sometimes pleasure worked far more effectively than torture in the pursuit of knowledge. There were additional lectures and practical classes in his daily teachings that maintained stamina and kept the senses sharp. Some of the practices Merlin found ridiculous at first but soon, the wisdom in them become vastly apparent.  

It was these practices that Merlin was putting to use in this moment, every sense hyper aware of his surroundings, and cataloguing every detail he could commit to memory in an effort to stand guard. When a light overhead suddenly flickered out, the warlock could feel every muscle in his body tensing, ears straining to hear what his eyes couldn't see. 

There was a vaguely quiet slithering sound, something _just_ under what he could hear, almost like the crinkle of crinoline in a new Victorian dress. He kept walking, keeping up pretenses of his unassuming walk, and focused on other indicators that his senses were delivering to him. Merlin could tell that something was trailing him and whatever it was, wasn't human, since it seemed to melt in and out of the shadows, the presence of it blinking in and out of existence in his senses. 

Without warning, Merlin found himself grabbed by the arm and hauled into the alley he'd just come abreast of. It reeked of vomit and feces, the vile concoction setting Merlin's stomach to uncomfortably roil in his belly. Worse still was the stench of the being that had accosted him, a harpy by the looks of it from what Merlin could make out. 

A female creature that had the unpleasant destiny of being the hybrid of a winged animal like a bird and fused with the physiognomy of a human woman. Her breath that travelled in horrendous puffs from her mouth, smelled worse than sewage. It was green skinned and had wings that spread for over 7 feet, her wild red swirling around her head as she came up on him. Her eyes were slitted and it took very little to ascertain the amount of hostility she had. The beast was using her upper arm to pin Merlin to the mortared wall behind him, a couple feet of the ground and aiming to obstruct his breathing through pushing his head up. 

Merlin weighed his options, this was a harpy, fairly low on the rungs in terms of powerful beasts, and it wouldn't succeed in killing him, no matter how much it tried. On the other hand, he didn't want to use magic and show his cards so early in the game. It would be far more beneficial to figure out _who_ the opponent was, before he went charging in.  

He settled, then, for doing what he did best. What he'd used in defense since he'd been a child.  

Merlin was going to distract the beast by talking. Assuming of course that the thing spoke at all. _Never mind_ _, I'll think about that if it happens._  

"That was quick." He rasped, feeling the lack of air in the burning of his throat.The harpy paused minutely in Its attempts to cut off Merlin's airflow. 

"I thought it would take you longer to find out who killed the little manticore. Nasty piece of work that one." He struggled to bring one arm up and place it firmly on the hand that was pressing into his chest with an abnormal amount of strength. It took most of Merlin's will not to wince.  

" _You will be silent, human boy, or you will face my L_ _ady's wrath!"_  

 _"_ So it's a woman then. What's she got against Arthur? He's just a spotty teenage boy, spoiled rotten and about to inherit daddy's fortune." The arm under his chin pressed harder on his trachea. 

" _You will answer my questions_ _wizard-ling_ _, or I will send your head rolling.Who are you and why do you interfere in my Lady's work?"_   

Now that Merlin did wince at. 

"Alright, easy. No need to – _cough –_ start talking about decapitation this early in the game. I'm no wizard. Just a kid who's grandad taught him a little of this and a little of that before he died. That's all. You're lady's not very good though, if she's using a _manticore_ to kill him, then she's going to have to try a _lot_ harder." 

Merlin gasped in pain as the harpy dug its bony elbow into his Adam's apple. His eyes watered and he was debating whether to use force or magic to drive the winged thing away when the harpy jerked, it's eyes widening as the tip of an iron blade emerged through her bottle green chest.  

The harpy abruptly let go of Merlin, letting him slide down the wall, where he sat in a crumpled heap, gasping for breath as the harpy gurgled blood in its throat, the blood cascading down its throat before it collapsed grotesquely to the side, the sword sliding out and creating another whole through which more blood seeped. It's eyes remained fixed on Merlin's as the light in them faded, the gaze full of a look that Merlin was sure would haunt him for days to come. It was the look of someone knowing that their death would be avenged, would be returned tenfold in severity.  

"Ugh. That's truly disgusting."  

Merlin found enough of his equilibrium to glance up at his savior and felt his mouth go slack.  

" _Lancelot?"_ The man in question stopped wiping his sword on the corpse on the ground and locked eyes with the black haired man, mouth quirking up in a smile. 

"I think, the last time that we met for the first time, I also saved your sorry ass from something that wanted to eat it." Merlin staggered to his feet and enveloped the man in a crushing hug.  

"If I remember correctly, I was the one that saved _your_ sorry ass when that griffin speared you like a roast pig." The sorcerer wheezed as they let go of one another. Lancelot grabbed Merlin's throat, tilting it up to inspect the skin. He let out a sympathetic hiss. 

"Sorry, mate, looks like that's going to bruise something terrible. " 

He shrugged, picking up his discarded bag, and phone, though the screen was now cracked. He'd have to fix that later. 

"Not the worst injury I've had. I'll tell you that."  

He toed the dead harpy in the alley.  

"What are we going to do with this then?" Lancelot shrugged, barely glancing at it.  

"This place only gets stupid drunks, anyone who sees it will think they're hallucinating. These things decompose pretty fast. I've killed plenty, no one seems to notice them. You tend to look _more_ suspicious if you're seen lugging a body-sized sack around." 

Merlin made an agreeing noise, rubbing his sore throat absent mindedly, and just now realizing that in the scuffle, his shirt had been torn. 

He looked at the man that had saved him, glancing towards him as they trudged down the street towards the more populated side, and just across from Keyes' apartment building.  

Lancelot was just as Merlin had last seen him and Merlin _refused_ to dwell on that particular incident for longer than necessary. His hair was just as it had been, long, but not so long as Gwaine's and far more kempt than the others. His eyes still held the gentleness that Merlin knew attracted the Queen, though her love for her warrior King had conquered that particular thirst. He was dressed in jeans and a blazer and quick look at his face told Merlin that he was at least a few years older than Arthur, early twenties at the youngest. 

They arrived at the apartment building faster than Merlin had anticipated, so when Lancelot turned to wave goodbye, he found himself instinctually reaching out to grab him. 

"Don't leave!" Lancelot seemed surprised at the sudden request and just looked at Merlin's arm then back at him. 

"It's just you're the first person I've met who remembers everything, well, I mean, I've met Morgana, and I live with Gaius, but _still_ it's different." The mortifying words were spilling without a filter from his lips and Merlin couldn't do a thing to stop it. He didn't even know if Gaius – Keyes- would object to a house guest, but Merlin felt the overwhelming _need_ to talk to Lancelot, to know about him and what he was doing in this world and if he remembered everything as well as Merlin did.  

He hoped that Lancelot would agree, he didn't know what he would do with himself if the man refused.  

"Alright. Just for tonight." 

* * *

 

The next morning, Merlin woke up groggy and sore to the sound of his alarm going off and his phone ringing simultaneously. He reached through the dips and valleys of his comforters to grab the offending piece of technology and turn the alarm clock off at the same time.  

" _Hng_ _–_ Hullo?"  

"Did I wake you, you slacker?" 

The grating voice had Merlin sitting straight up in his bed, shirtless and disoriented.  

"Huh – wha – Arthur?" 

"Who else is going to be waking you up at 8:30AM on a Sunday morning?" 

Merlin snuck a peek at the clock and it confirmed Arthur's irate voice. It was 8:31AM and he was due at the office in 30 minutes. He was wide awake suddenly, he would never make it to the Hotel in time. He leaned down and scooped up yesterday's socks off of the pile of clothes next to his bed, sandwiching his phone between his shoulder and his cheek as he struggled to get them on.  

"Sorry. Sorry, I overslept, I'll be there soon, I just – I might be late. Not a lot but -" 

A snort from the other line had him stop mid sentence. 

"Please. You think I didn't know that you'd do this? I _knew_ you'd sleep in, you lazy oaf. I'm downstairs to take your moronic ass to work. " 

"Who's on the phone?" 

Merlin and Arthur both froze at the groaning voice, deep and husky from sleep, suddenly interrupted the conversation. Lancelot – well _Rhain_ _,_ as he'd informed Merlin last night – rolled over from the other side of Merlin's bed, and looked at him from under the arm he'd thrown over his face. 

Merlin buried his face in his hands, knowing well how this sounded to an outsider. 

" _Shut up. It's Arthur."_ He hoarse whispered, holding the phone away from them. Rhain nodded his understanding and promptly rolled over, going back to sleep. 

"Sorry, I - " 

"Don't waste my time, Marlin, get down here before 8:50 or I'll leave you here, _and_ fine you for being late." Arthur's voice was curiously flat before the line went dead with a click.  

Merlin hung his head with a sigh, rubbing his eyes, with his hands still holding the phone. 

 _Great._   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellllooooo.
> 
> I'm back and updating all my stories. This one has another 8 - 20 chapters before its finished.  
> Anyhow, like always, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment and Kudos. It would make my day !


	10. What Did You Say?

**Chapter 10:** **What Did You Just Say?**  

Punctuality had never been Merlin's strong suit, his time in the stocks of Camelot would surely attest to that, but sometimes, the wizard baffled himself with just how often he was late at key moments. As it was, stumbling out of bed and pulling on day old clothes was a staple in his lifestyle, one he hadn't been able to shake since even before his days as a servant and after.  

He paused only minutely in his morning rush to take in the bruise on his neck from the previous night's rendezvous with the harpy. It was a violent purple, garish against his pale skin. He winced as he touched it and contemplated using magic to erase it. He didn't want to call attention to his activities but healing was always the least mastered skill of his. Merlin could do it under stress, but it was always shoddy and somehow managed to complicate things rather than simplify it.  

Once he'd managed to make himself borderline presentable, Merlin threw himself out of the bathroom only to run smack into Rhain, who despite still looking like he could do with about a century's worth of sleep, was awake and ready to leave. They didn't need to say a word to each other, the feeling of finding each other again making them smile even as they rushed out the front door past Keyes's room.  

In the elevator, Merlin kept touching the bruise on his neck, wincing at the dull ache.  In the mirror wrapping around the lift, Merlin's eyes met that of Rhain's, who looked at him sympathy.  

"You still suck at healing spells, huh?" Rhain didn't need to blink as the warlock lashed out an obligatory punch at the offending statement.  

"Hey, some people are absolute morons in math, me, I can't seem to fix a simple bruise." He rolled his eyes at the mirth in the other man's eyes and pulled up the collar of his black turtleneck higher, willing it to cover the bruise as much as he could. It was the best he could do in the time Arthur had provided him, a simple black turtleneck with ¾ sleeves in a tight fit and tailored black trousers. He was Arthur's PA and he'd realized that for the boy to be taken seriously, even his helpers needed to look exceptionally capable. His bag was slung on one shoulder while he fiddled with a cellphone, a new one that he'd borrowed from Keyes the night before. It was one of those iPhone things, which Merlin simultaneously loved and hated. The things were bloody useful but _so_ distracting. One could wheedle away _hours_ if you got too carried away.  

The elevator dinged, signaling their arrival in the lobby, and as they did step out on the first floor, the sorcerer noticed that the sky was dim and overcast, and under that grim atmosphere, the expensive looking Audi, no doubt belonging to Arthur, waited ominously for him. He sighed, motioning for Rhain to follow him. Follow he did, talking all the way, actually a fair bit more than the original Lancelot had. Merlin had to keep reminding himself that this was Lancelot's _reincarnation,_ not a resurrected version of the man, they shared memories, not necessarily personalities.  

"Still, I can’t help but think that Arthur might not like his assistant looking like he'd had a particularly _exciting_ encounter the night before. Might not look, y'know, professional or whatnot." Merlin shoved Rhain irately as they exited the building while checking his watch. He still had a minute on his time limit, whatever trouble he was in, he wasn't getting fined at the very least.  

"I'm aware thanks. I don't remember you being this much of an ass, is that something you acquired this time around?" The dark haired man shrugged, carding his hand through his sleep mussed hair, and adjusting the sword on his hip, not even looking slightly out of place in downtown London.  

There was the sound of loud honking, and Merlin realized it was coming from the Audi, and he lifted his hands in surrender to Rhain, motioning to the car and waving goodbye to the man. Merlin opened the car door and turned one last time to Rhain, ever the inciter of mischief as Merlin was discovering, motioned to Merlin's collar, winking and pantomimed pulling it up higher.  

"Are you going to continue to play charades and make us _all_ late or are you going to get in the car at some point this morning Marlin?" The acidic voice travelling from inside the car made Merlin flinch and he quickly dropped the hand he was using to wave to Rhain as he disappeared from sight and ducked into the car. He was all prepared to fling a quick retort at the 18 year old but found the will to voice it had died away instantly as he laid eyes on the stone cold look of his employer.  

Nearly 9AM in the morning and Arthur managed to look like he'd walked straight out of the bloody catalogue from a GQ magazine.  His hair was coiffed _just so_ to look both unachievable and yet unbelievably easy. It made Merlin uncomfortable, more than he wanted to admit. He found himself unwillingly tracing over the younger man's form with his eyes, starting from his impeccable black leather shoes to his navy blue tailored suit and form fitting dress shirt that collared his throat perfectly to his stormy blue ice blue eyes. Eyes which were currently staring at him, in a mixture of some sort of anger and confusion. Merlin flushed, having been caught in the blatant perusal of Arthur's person.  

There was an odd silence in the car, blanketing the sounds of the streets outside the vehicle, and despite the relatively short drive to the Hotel, Merlin found it stifling, nervously rearranging his shirt, hastily tugging at the neck of his turtleneck when his adjustments caused the fabric to slip and reveal the edge of the bruise on his neck.  

Merlin cursed inwardly, seeing Arthur eye it, but stay suspiciously silent, furthering Merlin's irrational urge to do _something_ to break the suffocating.  

"Rough night?" The bland, conversationalist tone to the question threw Merlin momentarily, seeing him look up at Merlin briefly over the iPad he was studying. This Audi had the maddening quality of having been constructed so that that back seats faced each other, rather than one in front of the other. It meant that Merlin was subject to Arthur's scrutiny for the duration of the drive. As always, the man – well, _boy_ – was the polar opposite of Merlin. All poise and sophistication, whereas Merlin exuded a sense of homeliness that he knew he would never escape.500 years and he _still_ hadn't managed to achieve the same amount of poise as a boy that was a fraction of his age. As it was, Arthur was watching him, his elbow propped on the windowsill so that his arm could support his head.  At Arthur's pointed look, Merlin caught on that Arthur was referring to the welts on his throat and he huffed out of nervousness, hiking the cloth to cover himself, though he already was.  

"Uhm, no not particularly. It was fine. Regular night." Arthur quirked an eyebrow at that, clearly not buying it.  

"A regular night for you involves looking like you fought with a luchador and lost?" Merlin could _feel_ the blush spreading over his body, heating up in embarrassment. If he could have been just a little bit better at healing spells he would have been able to fix it, but now that Arthur had seen it, he couldn't even attempt it, otherwise it would be rather suspicious for an injury to just _disappear._   

"No – look, can we, can we just ignore it?" Merlin asked, sending a pleading look to him, know that Arthur would follow with questions he couldn't satisfactorily answer.  There was a beat of silence, where they just stared at each other, before Arthur nodded and went back to his iPad, the car descending into quiet again. Merlin tried to busy himself by observing the London architecture as they drove by it.  

"So. Met a friend last night?" Merlin closed his eyes, breathing out slowly, he should have known that Arthur wouldn't give up easily. Well, it wasn't like that particular aspect was unexplainable.  

"Uh, yeah. Rhain. I've known him for – well. I've known him for a while." Arthur studied his face seemingly coming to a conclusion.  

"You're close." There was an odd tone to the realization that Merlin wasn't quite sure he understood.  

"He's the only one who's ever known me completely. There's not a thing I haven't told him, and there's not a thing I would ever hesitate telling him." 

"Is he...?" The King incarnate trailed off, clearly uncomfortable with his own inquiries though seemingly incapable of refraining from asking them nonetheless. The insinuation behind the incomplete question was crystal clear and Merlin sighed. 

"No, Arthur. If you mean to ask whether he and I have slept together, then that would be a no." 

" _Jesus,_ Marlin. _"_ His scandalized tone brought a snigger to Merlin's lips, unbidden. He'd forgotten, Arthur was a bloody prude when it came to these things.  

"Oi, _you_ asked, don't blame me if you can't take the answers to questions, YOU bloody asked." 

"I didn’t - I mean, I heard -?" 

"I said we hadn't _slept_ together. Not that we hadn't fallen asleep together." Arthur crinkled his nose in thought as he deciphered Merlin's sentence.  

"How am I supposed to understand anything you say, when you talk like that? It's like having a conversation with Confucius." Merlin clapped in admiration, earning himself a dirty look from the blond haired man.  

"Ooh good job, Confucius, that's a big one, even for you." Merlin didn't even have to blink before he moved out of the way of the binder that Arthur chucked at him. In that instant, whatever stiffness had fallen over them, dissipated. Arthur cracked a smile and Merlin grinned back, the routine from over 500 years ago slowly finding its place in the 21st century.  

Once the car pulled up to Drayce Hotel, they stepped out nimbly, avoiding puddles of rainwater that had accumulated from the storms of last night.  

"Alright, you menace. We've got work to do." Arthur yanked at the strap of Merlin's bag, before turning to enter the building. Merlin watched his figure disappear into the building, noting the unnatural shimmer of the puddle he'd stepped over. He muttered a quick obscurity spell and stomped rather deliberately on it as he followed the 18 year old boy inside, knowing that if you looked closely at the puddle, you would see that the clear reflections were now clouding over, as if fog were obscuring the view.  

Whatever was spying on the reincarnate of Camelot's greatest King would have to try a lot harder before it got anywhere near him again. As if a _puddle_ was adequate for reconnaissance, it was almost like he was dealing with an amateur.  

* * *

 

He'd only been 30 seconds behind Arthur, but by the time he got inside, Merlin found Arthur already in the middle of an irate guest and much harried looking employee. Both were standing by the concierge's desk, with the employee hastily trying to tend to the other guests' needs while the man turned his attention to Arthur. Merlin glanced briefly at the man's name tag, "Gabriel"), before turning his attention to what the male guest was saying. 

He was on the younger end of the spectrum, in his 30s, Merlin suspected, and gesticulating wildly as he illustrated his grievances to Arthur. His hair was thinning in the front, with pasty white skin that served to make him look crazier what with the odd way his eyes were widening the more worked up he got. The 18 year old heir listened patiently, despite the aggrieved air the man was putting on.  

"I mean, I've had a long two days, half of which was spent in business class in a godforsaken plane for _peons_ and I've not had a _proper_ breakfast yet and _now_ you're telling me that my room does NOT come equipped with a Butler?!"  

Merlin tried to school the expression on his face as he stood a respectful distance behind Arthur, who's shoulders were stiff as he attempted to somehow address the entirely bizarre request. 

"I'm sorry sir, but Hotel Drayce does not and has never employed butlers. We have bellboys and waitstaff specific to the restaurants, but we do not assign men to the penthouse suites. I am sure whenever you are in need of service, housekeeping the concierge here, will be more than happy to assist you." Arthur said this in the most placating tone of voice that he could muster. The man, whose name had yet to be mentioned, nearly turned purple at Arthur's words.  

"That's preposterous! My family has been staying at this hotel for years! Every single one of them has had a butler, I've seen them with my own eyes! Usually women, sometimes men, but there _were_ butlers. How dare you tell me that something I've seen with my own eyes does not exist?!" There was an accusing finger pointed in the young heir's face, and Merlin noted with pride that Arthur didn't give in to the annoyance he was no doubt feeling by now, and instead kept his voice as even and friendly as possible. Gabriel however, seemed very stressed, and kept rearranging the bowls of candies and mints with fidgeting hands. It seemed, to Merlin, that solution for this guest's delusion of butlers, that it was most likely that the people he'd seen were mistresses or _service_ providers. Of course, neither he nor Arthur was going to mention that particular tidbit of information, not unless they wanted a lawsuit.  

As Arthur worked on bringing the man down from his anger, Merlin noticed a shimmer in the air behind Gabriel, almost like the air rippled with the unseen causes. Then, he saw it, an orb of dark light, almost like a shadow, hovering in the air around the young Drayce heir. He narrowed his eyes, ignoring for the moment, the drama unfolding in front of him. He'd seen this before, years ago during the time he'd lived on Bakers Street and one Sebastian Moran had been sprawled unconscious on the pavement outside.  The black light had been almost _covering_ the man, reducing his pallor to ghastly and gray. He'd never gotten close enough to examine it though, so he was still unsure of what it was and what it did to people. 

" _What part of 'I want a_ _Butler_ _'_ _do you not understand?! My status in this hotel_ _entitles me to one!_ _"_ The guest flung out an arm, completely out of control and shoved one of the giant crystal bowls of mints off the desk and towards Merlin at alarming speed. He managed to duck in time, despite being caught of guard and avoided injury, except now Arthur was looking at him slack jawed, Merlin's speed astounding him. Merlin realized he'd automatically reverted to feinting techniques he'd been taught by the Hanzo's. No matter what, it looked odd for a high schooler to be able to duck like that.  

It was a split second decision but Merlin feigned a slip, sliding a foot out from underneath and wincing from even before impact, allowing his head to bang sharply against the base of the wood desk corner. 

"Marlin!" Merlin flinched at the feel of blood trickling down from his forehead. He had miscalculated and hit his head harder than he had anticipated in his flustered state. Although it gave him the benefit of seeing Arthur's face twist comically in concern and that of the other man's in surprise. Merlin got up, waving his hand in dismissal as he brushed himself off, and probed at the wound on his head delicately, one hand braced on his hip. 

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I just got knocked off balance by that great big bowl." Arthur let out a minute sigh of relief even as Gabriel handed Merlin his satchel, that had fallen to the floor in the middle of the commotion. Arthur turned to the man again.  

"Mr -?" 

"Arnett." He responded almost automatically, and immediately looked like he regretted it.  

"Mr. Arnett, I understand you're irritated, but I'm sure you'll realize that this is something we don't want to argue over." Arthur's eyes became hard here, a look Merlin had only ever seen him wear during court. "Especially since you know I could charge you quite easily for assault towards my assistant." 

Never had Merlin seen someone retreat so quickly. There one minute, gone the next.  Arthur shook his head and turned back to Merlin, poking the wound on his head with a finger. Merlin yelped and batted his hand away.  

" _Ow_ , watch it. It may be a small cut but it still hurts you know!" Arthur made a derisive snort, picking up Merlin's fallen bag and handing it back to him.  

"So why'd you have make yourself into a target for the moron? I've never seen someone slip to avoid one thing and then brain themselves on something else." He tossed a handkerchief to Merlin and walked towards the elevators, motioning for his PA to follow him, which Merlin did pressing the expensive cloth against his forehead. 

Inside the elevator, Arthur was silent as Merlin looked at the cut in the mirror, pulling the fringe of his hair back to examine it closely. It wasn't that long, but it stung. Merlin almost laughed out loud at that, he was behaving as if he hadn't endured worse things than a small cut. His mind flashed back to an instance where he'd been flogged in a village for speaking up for a woman accused of witchcraft.  

He shook the thought away, it put him in mindset that he wasn't easily able to come away from.  

"Oh. You have a white hair!" Merlin nearly jumped out of skin, hearing Arthur's voice cut through the silence in surprise. He glanced up at him in the mirror, _bloody_ _tall legged arse._  

"What?" 

"White hair. You have one." Arthur motioned at his head, smirking as if he expected Merlin to fuss over finding something that indicated he was growing old. Merlin nearly snorted in derisive laughter. How wrong the poor boy was. 

Merlin searched through his hair, thinking out loud.  

"White hair? Huh, never would have thought. Well, it makes sense, at this age if I don't have at least one white hair it would just be _weird._ " 

"This age? You're only 18, you nitwit." Merlin grinned, thankful Arthur hadn't noticed the second slip for what it was.  

"Oh shut it, you. Besides, I don't see it, are you sure it wasn't just the light?" He combed through his hair with his fingers, shrugging when he couldn't find it. Arthur rolled his eyes.  

"Oh for the love of – turn around, I'll show y-" He grabbed Merlin by the chin and hauled him around, surprise flashing on his face when he realized he'd come much closer than he'd anticipated.  

They froze in that position, Merlin's back against the wall of the elevator, holding the railing for balance, and Arthur, holding Merlin's chin up and the other hand braced on the wall behind him. Despite being almost half a foot taller than Marlin, the young heir felt his heart do a nervous flip flop at the unintentional intimacy of the moment. He was suddenly hyper aware of the fact that only a very small distance separated the two from each other, a distance he felt was too far away and yet _far_ too close. 

Merlin looked as flustered as he felt, his blue eyes blown wide open, and his lips forming a small 'o' of surprise. There was a dark flush spreading up his neck, making his ears unbelievably red and Arthur could swear that Marlin had stopped breathing.. 

At that moment, the elevator dinged open. 

"Come _on,_ Dad. If I'm late for – _whoa."_ Merlin and Arthur jumped and sprang apart at the sight of Nerissa and Tony, stood in the doorway, observing them. Nerissa lowered her shades a little, peering at the two of them from over top, eyes flicking between them.  

"Ahem." She slid them back up and schooled her expression, though a snigger managed to erupt once before she was able to do it completely. Merlin was mortified, particularly with the way Tony was studying him. Arthur was rubbing the back of his neck and walked out of the elevator casually with Merlin walking out after a beat of uncertainty. He kept his distance from the young boy, keenly feeling his father's gaze on him as well as Morgana – _Nerissa's_.  

The two boarded the elevator, with Tony going back to tapping on his iPad, not even glancing up at them to address his son. 

"Discretion is a valuable asset, son. I trust you will use it appropriately in the future. Come see me in my office at 12." Arthur kept his face blank and his stance stiff, answering politely.  

"Yes, Father."  

A snort of laughter caught their attention, and they looked over to where Arthur's sister was standing. The hand strategically covering Nerissa's mouth wasn't fooling anyone, especially with the way her shoulders were shaking. 

"Bye – bye boys!" She singsonged as the doors slid shut. Merlin watched as Arthur's upright posture slumped with a sigh.  He let out a short cry of frustration, using both hands to mess up his hair before letting his hands drop to his sides. Then suddenly he whirled around, coming up short when he nearly ran right into Merlin, backing up before they could collide.  

He coughed self consciously and sidestepped the wizard, shoving one hand into his pocket, the other one back to rubbing the back of his neck and walked into his office, pushing the door open with slightly more force than necessary. Merlin let out a small groan, hanging his head and pressing the palms of his hands into eyes.  

 _One normal day. Just one._  

"Are you coming in or not?!" 

Merlin started in shock.  

"Coming!" 

* * *

 

When noon rolled around, Merlin all but _ran_ from Arthur's office to the cafeteria reserved for staff. That had been probably the most awkward, stifling, _suffocating_ 3 hours of his life in the last 2 centuries, barring that one moment when Sherlock Holmes had walked in on him with an rather aggressive lapful of Irene Adler. The memory still made him shiver when he remembered the look in the detective's eyes.   

He hit his head with the back of a spoon.  

"Idiot. Idiot. _Idiot._ " 3 successive taps on the head. Being holed up in Arthur's organizing his schedule and arranging papers for him to sign meant he was constantly brushing against him. It wouldn’t have been so bad, if it wasn't for Arthur nearly levitating out of his skin every time it happened.  

It got worse while walking around in the office, putting things in binders and turning to find the heir standing behind him, watching him with an indecipherable look. He looked away only when Merlin raised an questioning eyebrow, waving a file in his face to catch his attention. Only for him to return to doing it once Merlin turned away, as if he couldn't feel the weight of it on his back.  It wasn't as if Arthur wasn't trying to be normal. He still needled Merlin when he could, making fun of his handwriting, and chucking random pencils at him when Merlin sniped back. The only thing that changed was the curious glances he kept throwing at him.  

After 3 hours, Merlin was at his wits end and practically bolted from the doors once Arthur dismissed him for lunch. Now, here he was, sat at his table, in front of an untouched plate of food, hitting himself in the face with a spoon.  

" _Oi,_ what did the spoon ever do to you?" Merlin looked up to see Nerissa sliding into the seat opposite, winking at him. She dropped her bag on the table, shoving her shades on top of her head and rested her cheek on a hand, while blinking innocently at him.  

"Lovely scene you treated me to this morning, Merlin." Merlin rolled his eyes at the suggestive eyebrow waggling. 

"Stop that. You're supposed to be an accomplished woman with a reputable public standing." Merlin snappped, aware that everyone was looking at them, wondering why Nerissa would sit with a nobody like a PA. Or why she would be in the staff cafeteria in the first place.  

"Mhm. So, what was that about anyway?" 

Merlin banged his head on the table in defeat. 

"Hell if I know. One minute we're talking and the next thing I know, _that_ happens. What the _hell_ is wrong with your brother." Nerissa laughed and ruffled his hair, uncaring of his hands that smacked hers away. 

"I don't know, but I _do_ know that he's been a little different since you showed up on Friday. He's not behaving like the little brother I remember." 

Merlin looked up at that.  

"Speaking of memory, I wondered, how much – exactly – do you remember?" It was Nerissa's turn to look embarrassed. Her cheeks flushed pink and she squirmed a little in her seat. 

"All of it?" Merlin looked at her incredulously, pulling back to properly look at her, dropping his voice lower when he realized they were still being watched. 

"Are you serious? You remember all of it?" She nodded, the flush increasing.  

"Then how are you even talking to me? If you remember everything, you remember that you specifically wanted me dead. Well, me and Arthur."  Nerissa flinched at the statement but then her expression quickly became thoughtful.  

 "I don't know how to explain it really." At Merlin's raised eyebrow, she hurriedly added. "It's not like I'm not gonna try! Jeez." She laced her fingers together, elbows on the table.  

"Look, I got my memories back during my second last year of high school. Starting with a memory of you passing out after drinking poison. I thought I was losing my mind at first. But when I realized the dreams were coherent and connected, I started writing them down." She pulled out a worn notebook from her bag, pushing it towards Merlin, who gingerly accepted it, stroking the cover. 

"After a while I realized that the things I was seeing were real, I started to pay more attention." 

"You're forgetting the intense hatred you had for Arthur and me." He looked at her expectantly. It was uncomfortable, but he would rather that he get rid of any doubts he had towards her now. By the look of her, she finally realized what he was trying to get at and took a deep breath. 

"I can't explain away my  ... _behaviour_ _..._ from back then, Merlin. I was angry, I wanted someone to blame. But now, I'm seeing things from the perspective of an outsider. I can see myself objectively, and I know the truth now. But I don't think anything you could have said back then would have made me do anything differently then. I was too angry. Just, believe me, I would never hurt Arthur, _never._ In that life, I was his enemy but here, I'm family, I would sooner _die,"_ she said fiercely, gripping Merlin's hand in a vice like hold, "than hurt him. Never, you hear me, Merlin?" 

Merlin patted the hand that held his, calming her down and smiling. 

"That's all I wanted to hear. If only I could've done this back then. Would have saved us all a lot of grief." Nerissa snorted in agreement. 

"Alright, next question. Do you still have...?" Merlin trailed off, fluttering his fingers at her. She smiled in response and trailed a finger down his forearm, leaving numbers in its wake. After a moment of speechless silence, Merlin pulled out his phone. 

"You could have just asked for my phone number." He grumbled, inputting the information while Nerissa laughed, eyes twinkling with mirth, lips pulling back to reveal pearly white teeth. _That answers that, I guess._  

"Where's the fun in that?" Merlin shot her a dirty look, making her laugh harder, reaching out and smoothing the numbers out with her hands, leaving pale skin in her wake.  

"I should probably tell you, there was a manticore here yesterday. It was targeting Arthur." That wiped the smile right off of Nerissa's face. She took the sunglasses off of her head and set them down, her mouth set in a grim line.  

"A manticore? I haven't seen one yet. Not around me. Where did you think it came from?" 

Merlin shook his head. 

"No idea. I only just found the moron and someone's trying to kill him already. After I left from here last night I ran into a harpy." He paused and then amended the statement. "Well, it ran into me. And then Rhain ran into _it._ Lots of people running into each other yesterday." 

"Rhain?" 

"Ah, Lancelot." 

" _Lancelot?"_ Nerissa was wide eyed eyes going slightly glassy when Merlin nodded.  

"As in Lancelot the unbelievably tanned, gorgeous so-hot-I-could-die Knight. _That_ Lancelot?" Merlin made a face at the description. 

"Uh, sure. Yeah, that Lancelot. Listen, have you .. _met_ anyone else yet?" He asked, looking around furtively, to make sure no one was listening. Nerissa was still daydreaming, and only snapped out of it when Merlin snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Nerissa!" 

"Oh! Uh, yes. I've only seen Leon so far." She thought again. "Oh, and also Gavin. But I don't know if he remembers anything." Merlin carded his fingers through his hair, avoiding the cut near the hairline.  

"Yeah, I've seen him too. I don't know if he remembers or not. He's talked to me but I don't think Gwaine – sorry Gavin, has any idea who I am, beyond being Arthur's PA." 

"So he has no idea? How are you going to get him to remember?" She asked, and Merlin shrugged. 

"Not sure. It's not like I can just walk up to him and say 'Hi Gavin. Did you know, 500 years ago, you were a Knight of the Round Table? Arthur's Roundtable, and you're name was Gwaine, actually. Why, yes, the Arthur who's currently an 18 year old boy. And did you know, you and I were friends? I'm actually a sorcerer who's 573 years old. You died when Arthur did but I didn't. You didn't know? Well now you do. Have a nice day!'" He deadpanned, noting that the ever present smile was worming it way back onto her face. 

"What?"  

A voice interrupted their conversation and heard rather than saw Nerissa gasp when they found themselves looking at Gavin, staring at the two of them shell shocked. His eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them. Merlin and Nerissa glanced at each other, unsure of what to say. 

"What. Did. You. Just. Say?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooooooooo my lovelies. I give you chapter 10! or 9! Depending on which way you count it.  
> In any case, thank you for being so patient and for reading my story, so please read, kudos and comment! I live for the comments!
> 
> Thank you so much once again!


	11. The Snake

Why did revelations never go properly for him? Merlin followed a rather erratically behaving Gavin down fourteen flights of stairs, with Nerissa right behind him, her heels clacking loudly on the marble flooring, keeping up surprisingly well. The _last_ time he'd revealed he had magic, Arthur had _died_ in his arms.  

"Gwa-Gavin, Gavin, _wait -"_   

"Wait? For _what?!"_ Gavin looked back incredulously at Merlin and Nerissa before turning to continue down even faster than before. "I don’t know what kind of sick joke you guys are playing, but it’s not funny." 

Damn Gwaine – Gavin, even in this life, the man's stride made it so Merlin had to run doubly fast just to keep up. Case in point, he had jump down the last four steps in order to catch up to him as Gavin shoved the metal door at the bottom of the steps open.  

Gavin paid him no mind, and walked perhaps even faster, his navy blue blazer flaring out behind him as he approached his car. Even his stride was indicative of the anger he was feeling. Merlin, nearly running now, thanked the gods that the parking lot seemed to be mostly deserted. He understood where Gavin was coming from. In this context, it was easy to see why Gavin felt like he was the butt of some elaborate joke. 

"I mean I’d been having dreams but, _King Arthur_? As in _the_ King Arthur? I must be completely out of my mind. I need a beer or something." He opened the car door only to have Merlin _finally_ catch up to him, with Nerissa huffing and puffing just behind him, pushing the door shut just as it opened. He leaned against the door 

"Gavin just _wait -_ I know this is a shock -" 

"A _shock_? A shock? No, a shock is when you discover your mate necking with your girl or your parents doing _it_ in the living room, _THIS_ is bloody unbelievable." He scrubbed his hands up and down his face, over his five o' clock shadow, though it looked a lot more stylish than Merlin's did.  "Un _be_ lievable. Maybe I'm just lying, shitfaced, in some hooker's apartment? I mean I know that gin does some nasty things with your head, maybe this is just some bizarre drea-" 

Nerissa seemed like she'd seen enough and swung her considerably large bag to connect perfectly with Gavin's head, causing him to cut off in mid-sentence, yelping in pain.  

"Ow, what the _hell,_ you bi-" Nerissa rolled her eyes and hit him upside the head again, for what seemed like good measure, while Merlin watched, mouth agape, eyes flicking back and forth between the two.  

" _Ouch_ , are you insane -" 

"Stop whinging like a child, Gavin, you're a grown man. I was still in _highs_ _chool_ when I found out about all of this." 

Gavin gawked at her, like he was seeing her for the first time.  

"Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you _knew_ about this? You known about this thing for _years,_ _and_ you never once thought to mention it to me?" Gavin raised an eyebrow and Merlin could see the merit in that point. Nerissa huffed, looking self conscious and now slightly defensive. 

"Look, I was a just a kid, and honestly, I could barely understand what was happening and even though it felt real, none of it hit until this one showed up yesterday. " Nerissa jerked her thumb in Merlin's direction. "All I knew was that I was having dreams - " 

Gavin looked like he was about to throttle her, eyes wide and disbelieving and displaying _just_ that little bit of crazy.  

"Dreams?! You knew I'd been having dreams too!" 

"You said _nightmares_ , you dingdong, how was I supposed to know that we were dreaming about the same thing?' 

"Dingdo- oh how very mature 'Rissa, really." Gavin sniffed, clearly not impressed and Nerissa just waved her hand at him, beyond words. 

Merlin couldn't help but intercede here at the mention of the nickname.  

"'Rissa?' So then you two are friends? The same age?" 

"Yes," Nerissa replied making the word sound like it was a tragedy to be in the same age bracket as Gavin, thumping him on  the forehead to get him to back up, seeing as he had pushed himself up alarmingly in her personal space during his ranting and raving.  "I've had to deal with this narcissistic hysterical mess since I was 14 years old." 

Gavin thumped her right back, eliciting a gasp out her when she stumbled two steps to the side. Merlin put his hands up in surrender, back away slightly. 

"Okay, I'm not even going to touch that one. But the point here is that for whatever reason, you’ve all been reincarnated. Here and now, within spitting distance of each other, for a reason."  

"What reason?" Gavin asked, seemingly curious despite himself.  

He put his hands on his hips in response and frowned. "The 'why' is still a tad elusive. I don't know." Merlin found himself admitting and Gavin just threw his hands up in the air in defeat. 

"Great." Gavin muttered, raking a hand through his hair. "I'm a reincarnated knight with no purpose listening to a magic man who's got no idea what's going on." 

"Oh shut up Gavin. At least you were a knight, I was King's psycho crazy half-sister who kept trying to destroy the whole place." Gavin's eyes grew disproportionately wide in realization, whirling to face her again, this time in suspicion. He pointed a finger in Nerissa's face, though she remained rather unperturbed at his antics, leading Merlin to think that Gavin was perhaps unaware of just how un-suave he really was.  

"That's right! I remember now! _You_ were Morgana!" 

"Gavin, I'm going to give you three seconds, _three_ , to get that finger out of my face or I _will_ break it." 

"You were evil! You tried to kill me. TWICE" Merlin found himself inappropriately wanting to laugh at the outrage on Gavin's face as he connected all the dots in his head. Clearly this Gavin was on par with the perception skills of his medieval counterpart. Well. It made things somewhat less complicated for him, making it easier to treat Gavin comfortably. He still wasn't too sure how he was going to deal with the reincarnation of Lancelot. He was far too removed from Lancelot's polite and mannered personality, reminding him more of Gwaine, actually.  

"1." 

"Uh, Gavin, I think she's serious ." Merlin eeked out, seeing Nerissa's expression growing more annoyed. He was starting to see the tumultous relationship the two must have had growing up.  

"How do we know you're not evil now?" Gavin leaned forward, just behind his still pointed finger with his eyes narrowed. 

"2." The word was heavy with warning. 

"Gavin - " 

"Prove it you're not evil!" 

"3." 

Nerissa proceeded to grab the surprised Gavin's hand and twisted it artfully behind the man's back in a move that Merlin almost felt the need to applaud. He'd learnt the move for well over 200 years and he didn't think he could have executed it as smoothly as the young woman had. Nerissa shoved her childhood friend up against the car, grinning in self satisfaction. 

"Ow ow ow! Let go you psychopathic crazy lady!" 

"I _did_ warn you. Besides, if you'd been paying attention, McLeod, the fact that you're alive should be proof enough. If I was evil you'd have never made it past you're 16th birthday alive." Merlin shivered as she said the words, the smile she wore and the sentence she'd just finished didn't match in the slightest. He was definitely glad that Morgana was on their side this time around, it was a chance to atone for the sins of his past. He hadn't been able to stop her before, at least this time, he could protect her innocence for as long as he was able this time. 

"If you two _children_ are quite finished with the two-man comedy skit you're running, we've got something important to discuss." 

That put a stop to the squabbling almost instantaneously as Nerissa let go of Gavin, who shot her a dirty look but just rubbed his wrist, severely put out at being one upped. Nerissa set herself again, smoothing down her hair and mouthing an aggressive "what're you looking at?" at Gavin when she caught the looks he was sending her, which tamed him rather quickly before he addressed Merlin.  

"Discuss? What are we discussing?" Merlin motioned to the building behind them in response to Gavin's question. 

"I was already talking to Nerissa when you showed up." Gavin leaned back against the car, indicating interest. 

"Someone, I don’t know who, is making a move on Arthur." Gavin grew serious, thinking while Nerissa stopped trying to intimidate Gavin.  

"Okay, we know this how?"  

"A manticore tried to kill Arthur in his office yesterday, and on the way home,  I was attacked by a harpy - " 

"wait, wait, _wait."_ Gavin put his hands up to stall Merlin in the middle of his debriefing, giving him widely confused looks.  

"What the _hell_ is a harpy? Or even a manticore?" Merlin blinked, astounded at the question. 

"What do you mean what are they? How can you not know? You've fought hundreds of them - " 

Gavin threw his hands up for a second time that day. 

"I told you, I just started having these dreams, I've got bits and pieces Marlin - " Gavin stopped and looked at him weirdly.  

"Hang on, that's not it. Your name isn't Marlin, it's Merlin." Nerissa interrupted him impatiently, brushing a few strands of hair that the wind had blown into her face. 

"Yes, we know Gavin, catch up already will you?" Gavin muttered something definitely rude under his breath and hurried on to continue what he was saying to Merlin when he caught sight of Nerissa's raised eyebrow.  

"Anyway, what are they?" Merlin thought for a moment.  

"Let's say for simplicity's sake, that a manticore is about the size of a cat but get close enough and it has venom strong enough to kill a man. It also has pretty good at mind control. The mind control is how it got in yesterday, the manticore possessed Arthur's secretary and she tried to stab him while his back turned. I killed it though. The harpy on the other hand," Gavin was now deep in thought as he tried to think back to yesterday, recalling that he had left the building early to go drinking. It was the first time he found himself regretting the action.  

"That's also a pretty nasty one. It's basically a woman with wings who's got limbs that are a weird cross between bird and human. One nearly got the jump on me yesterday but Lancelot got there in time to kill it." Gavin's eyes nearly bugged out, similarly to Nerissa's when she'd first heard that tidbit of information. 

"Lancelot? Seriously? You've already found another one of the knights?" The wizard nodded and Gavin nearly appeared to faint with happiness. 

"And he remembers?" When Merlin confirmed it, Gavin erupted with a muted cheer. "So I'm seriously not crazy?" 

"That's debatable." Nerissa deadpanned, earning herself a surprised snicker out of Merlin.  

"Oh quiet you. You're just jealous you don't have any witchy friends to chat with." He turned to Merlin eagerly. "Can I meet him? I'd love to see him."  

Merlin felt like he would have to say yes now or risk another public meltdown. He still wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do about the scene Gavin had caused in the cafeteria, approaching them and suddenly bolting like the hounds of hell were upon him. Merlin could already feel the headache coming on from thinking about it. It was only his second day of work, dammit. He'd gone 500 years without creating – significant – trouble, and then he meets Arthur and suddenly there's more trouble than he'd experienced in two days than he's seen in the last 250 years (not counting the years he spent in the two world wars that is).  

"Well, I can't see that he'd refuse but I'm warning you two, this Lancelot's nothing like the old one, so don't be expecting the one you saw in your dreams, alright?" They nodded, and Merlin suddenly felt faint from how quickly things were progressing despite the fact that the _main_ reason behind this reunion was still blissfully unaware of the events going on around. Merlin shuddered to think of the reaction that kid was going to have when he realized he'd been kept in the dark all this time. If his current temperament was anything to go by, he was just as volatile as his medieval version. Possibly more so.  

Speaking of temperament, Merlin thought and looked down at his watch. He cursed internally, and looked at the two looking at him expectantly.  

"Alright, I wish we could talk more, but I've got to get back to work or I'm positive that that entitled prat is going to send me down to HR again for being late." That got Gavin and Nerissa to crack a grin in unison.  

"Seriously? He did that to me too, on my first day as his VP. I thought I was going to die of cookie-overdose." Merlin just rolled his eyes and waved, taking off for the doors, hearing Nerissa and Gavin start to bicker again as he left.  

"Why can't you act just a _little_ put together? You made us look like raving lunatics in front of him!" 

"What does the evil witch have a little crush on Merlin? And anyway, it's not me you should be worried about, why don't _you_ learn to let loose a little - " 

The door swung closed behind him and Merlin just shook his head, _they'll kill each way_ _before_ _some magical creature gets the chance to do it._   

He approached the doors to Arthur's office with some trepidation, knowing that his father had called the teen into his office in the afternoon, most likely to discuss the elevator fiasco. Thinking of that had Merlin's cheeks burning red, even as he stood right in front of the office.  

 _Stop_ _it,_ Merlin scolded himself. _He's Arthur for God's sake! You can't go getting excited just because he's the first guy you've had physical contact with in 250 years!_ Merlin ignored the memories of his decidedly more _promisc_ _u_ _ous_ years flooding his head, causing his cheeks to burn even more. He slapped himself in the face to snap himself out of it just as Arthur opened the door, shocking him into freezing in post slap stance. 

"Marlin!" The taller man had to wrench himself back to avoid bowling Merlin over, and looked at him strangely, eyes flicking from the hand to the most likely vivid slap mark on his face. Merlin flushed again, this time out of embarrassment. "I just came back from a meeting with Father, although Im not too sure what I did after you left for lunch." A briefly confused look crossed over Arthur's face that Merlin failed to catch, too caught up with having been caught slapping himself. Merlin resisted the urge to cover his face and barreled past the man into his office. 

"Sorry I'm late, got caught up a little bit." 

"Yeah, I heard." Arthur said drily, following Merlin to sit at the chairs around the sitting area in his office rather than his desk. Noting the slight humor in the tone, Merlin glanced at the blond suspiciously from his seat.  

"Heard what?" 

"Just that you had lunch with _Nerissa_ of all people, and the McLeod apparently showed spoke to you for like 2 seconds, then ran like a bat out of hell and the two of you went running after him like some bad version of a soap opera." 

Merlin groaned, leaning back into the cushy couch. 

"Don't your employees have better things to do than gossip?" Arthur had the audacity to snicker. 

"Are you kidding? This is a high school in here, gossip is pretty much an entry requirement."  

When Merlin shot him an unimpressed look at the joke, and after a moment of silence, he spoke again. 

"So what happened?" 

"What?" 

"You know, what happened at lunch? Never mind that you've only met my sister once and she's already having lunch with you when my friends have only gotten a basic look, why'd Gavin have a soap-opera style fit in the cafeteria today?"  

"He found out that he and Nerissa were reincarnated medieval characters and that I was immortal." There. He'd said it. Now to see if -  

"Nice try Marlin, that sounds more like the latest plot of Doctor Who. Seriously, cough it up." 

"He got jealous of Nerissa having lunch with me and wanted to have some words with me." 

"Even worse, you numpty, everyone knows that those two can't stand each other for longer than they have to. I'm letting it go for now only because my appointment's going to be here soon and we have bigger fish to fry, but don't think for a _second_ that this is over yet. " 

Arthur whacked him on the arm in promise of this future interrogation and got up, going quickly to his desk and picked up a tablet, tossing it to Merlin, watching amusedly as the man scrambled from his slouched position to grab the thing before it hit ground. Succeeding after doing a slide and grab, Merlin rolled over from his position on the floor to glare at his teenaged boss. 

"Oi! Don't go tossing stuff like that! Just because you've probably got twenty in assorted colors, don't assume they're expendable, you twit." Arthur pinned Merlin with a look that he decided was probably intended to intimidate him, but was rather giving him the appearance of trying to think _really_ hard.  

"Whatever, look that's yours now. It's got our schedule - " 

" _Our_ schedule?" 

"-  yes, Marlin, try to keep up, you're my PA, my schedule IS your schedule. It's also got my personal references in there for when you order us food - " 

"What am I, your waiter?" 

"- your work email and a webcam application for when we need to talk." 

"As opposed to using my perfectly functional phone?" Merlin waved it in the air. He knew he was being annoying but couldn't help it. He'd yearned for years for the return of this dynamic and was finding it far more natural than he'd thought it would be to return to.  

"Are you being purposely difficult?" Arthur put his hands on his hip indignantly.  

"Me? Never, boss." Merlin put on the airs of being unjustly accused. 

The sideways look that Arthur gave him was definitely unconvinced but the young man was forced to let it go when the first of his afternoon appointments knocked on the office door. Arthur mouthed behave at him silently, before opening the door, not missing the mock salute that Merlin sent him in response.   

* * *

 

That night, the drive back to his apartment with Keyes was far easier than the ride this morning had been. Merlin was beginning to feel the effects of the day on his body, after being on high alert all day. Not only had it been wet and gloomy but also carried the added punch of emotional reunions between more people of the Camelot era. He was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of information and people, as well as keeping up with the civilian life he had to live at Arthur's side.  

"Falling asleep there Marlin?" 

Merlin scowled, this prat had been needling him all day, and as a result they'd beein getting into ridiculously silly back and forths.  

"So would you if you were employed for no pay by a classmate." 

"Who said I'm not paying you?" Arthur looked genuinenly surprised by that and Merlin bit his tongue. He should never have brought it up. A quick couple taps on Arthur's own tablet later and then the heir was once again looking at Merlin as if seeing him for the first time.  

"You're right. You're not on the company payroll. I wonder why?" He pursed his lips and began clacking away while Merlin silently hit himself. Of course he wasn't there, Marlin Keyes didn't have a bank account.  

"Just put my pay with Keyes' I haven't got a bank account yet." 

"What? You're 18 already Marlin, what're you doing? You're going to be going to University next year, you need your own bank account." Arthur settled in to his seat, putting away his tablet and focusing on Merlin, who sat opposite him, pulling on his tight turtleneck collar, feeling hot under pressure.  

"Right. University." The unsure tone had Arthur look at Merlin, alarmed. 

"Wait a second, you're not - " He thumped his head into the car seat with a groan. "you are _not_ telling me that you're one of those idiots who's left his University application to the last minute are you?" Merlin's unnatural laugh convinced Arthur he was right, sending him ranting a lecture that Merlin quickly tuned out. After all, what was he going to say? It wasn't like he was going to be able to tell him that he probably had, altogether, over 70 degrees from 30 Universities worldwide with different anagrams of his name, and one somewhere with his own name, though that one was most likely lost to the fires of the book burnings of Nazi Germany. 

"Merlin -" 

Merlin's eyes snapped open to look at Arthur at the sound of his own name, belatedly realizing the car had stopped. Arthur himself seemed unconcerned by it. 

"Whoops, I meant _Marlin_ , sorry, I know, its dumb calling you Merlin. But seriously, it's only the difference of one letter," Arthur shrugged. "Maybe I'll start calling you that, stupid name for a stupid guy." He grinned at Merlin like he was expecting Merlin to laugh or something. Instead, curiously, Arthur's upright coffee mysteriously spilt itself all over his perfect suit lapel. 

Ah yes, magic certainly did have its benefits. 

 "Ah shit!" 

"Language Mr. Heir Apparent." 

"I thought I told you to stop calling me that." 

"You say a lot of things, doesn't mean I'm going to listen to all of them." 

Alright, perhaps he was having a little too much fun with the discovery of their equal social status.  

"Marlin. Isn't that the guy from this morning?" 

Merlin looked outside, realizing they were in front of his building, and that outside it, stood Rhain, holding a hand to his rather bloodied head. He was out of the car before he realized it, sprinting towards him, after muttering a quick goodbye to Arthur. 

So preoccupied was he with Rhain that Merlin failed to notice two things. 

  1. The unmarked car that pulled up behind Arthur's Audi 
  2. The distinct glow of a moving symbol on Arthur's neck. Remarkably similar to a mark Merlin had once worn himself.



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HYELLO.  
> CHAPTER 11 ARRIVETH.  
> Please please PLEASE let me know if you liked it!  
> I'm doing my best to update at least every week from now on, but I'm also moving so bear with me guys!  
> As always comments and Kudos are loved and appreciated after all, feedback is how I tweak my story to adjust to better my story :) <3


	12. Homeroom

Had it really only been 3 days? Arthur puzzled over the last few days of his life as he walked up absentmindedly to the front door of his home. He barely paid any mind to the butler who took it upon himself to divest Arthur of his suit jacket and briefcase, enunciating clearly when he informed him that they were to have guests but it was obvious that the young man's thoughts were elsewhere.

The scene kept replaying in his head, as the heir entered his room and made quick work of his clothes, thinking back to how Marlin had leapt from his car after seeing the state of his friend. They'd disappeared quickly into his building without so much as a backward glance and it had left him feeling oddly left out. Which, he was quick to remind himself, was ridiculous because he didn't know  _any_  of them well enough to be feeling left out. He climbed the marble staircase that was in the center of the vast lobby of the Drace household, making for his room as he further reminded himself that people usually felt left out that  _he_  wasn't including them in his activities, so for him to be feeling put out was silly. He  _was_  Arthur Drace after all, he had a reputation to think about. 

The phone in Arthur's room rang abruptly, the light on the handset flashing an urgent red, as Arthur tripped over his feet in an effort to reach it before the call ended.

"What?" It came out rather gruff seeing as he was pretty sure he was going to lose two toes based on the amount of pain was throbbing through his foot.

"Master Drace is requesting your presence in the Dining Hall, Lady Petunia is here." Arthur could feel his own face drain of blood. Lady Petunia was his father's younger sister, which still made her quite a bit older than Arthur. She was a large woman, with a pasty white complexion and an unpleasant tendency to behave as if she weren't an Aunt but rather a young woman with a rather alarming taste for young men. The very thought had Arthur quaking in his boots.

Clearly he and his sister had been deliberately kept uninformed of her plans to visit in order to prevent them from escaping. After all, there was no telling what Petunia would do if she were to find out that her precious niece and nephew had given her the slip. 

Resigned to his fate, Arthur shrugged on a plain white t-shirt, discarding the dress shirt he'd worn to work, and exited his rooms, closing the door firmly behind him.

Suddenly, down the hall Arthur heard a flurry of movement and with abrupt and unstable movements, the door to Nerissa's suites flew open. What emerged was Nerissa in a state of dishevelment and rumpled-ness that Arthur usually only saw when his sister was black out drunk and could only just  _barely_  make it to her room without falling on her arse. 

Her hair was messy, frizzy and still half up in curlers, Nerissa was wearing a fairly conservative form fitting dress, one that she usually brought out for family visits. She had a phone sandwiched between her ear and shoulder while she leaned against the opened door frame, trying to expedite the process of yanking on sneakers. Nerissa hopped around a bit until she managed to shove both feet into the shoes. 

"Uh – huh, are you sure he's alright?" Nerissa then winced as she stopped fiddling with her shoes and began rummaging through her bag while the tinny voice on the other end of the phone squawked at her, he thought, rather irately. 

'Alright, alright! Keep your trousers on, Marlin, I'm coming!" Nerissa walked past Arthur, seemingly not even noticing him, and finally appeared to find what she was looking for, fishing out a second phone from her purse, even as the first one was still between her ear and shoulder, and fired off a quick text. 

" Wait, Nerissa?" Despite the shock that must have been written all over his face, Nerissa paid it no mind, instead she turned and gave him an unapologetic smile as she freed her phone from its hold and held it in her hand to her ear. 

"Can't talk Arthur, Aunt Petunia is in the dining room with Father and I can't make it tonight. Looks like you're on your own, brother of mine." She mimed a gesture of apology at Arthur's incredulous expression, gliding the rest of the way down the stairs, grabbing her personal car keys and headed for the front door. 

She paused then, on her way out, sticking her head back in.

"Oh also, I think Aunt Petunia brought Cindy with her tonight." And off she went with an airily blown kiss.

 _I'm going to kill her_. He thought in despair, blanching in horror.  _I'm going to kill that woman in her sleep_.

* * *

 

"What the _hell_ were you doing, that you nearly got your head split open like an egg?" Merlin punctuated his sentence with a rather rough swipe of an alcohol swipe across Rhain's forehead.

"Ouch! Gently, you absolutely awful human being." Rhain grumbled, lying on Merlin's bed while the warlock tended to his injuries. Of his injuries there were many, Merlin observed as he continued to try and clean the gash on his friend's head.

"I'd be gentle if it weren't for the fact that I'm unbelievably annoyed right now. You better tell me what happened  _right now_?"

"Honestly, it wasn't even that bi – ow ow ow ow ow  _OW_! Alright!" Rhain put his hands up in defeat as Merlin began viciously jabbing the alcohol swipe into his cut lip.

"You're such a  _whin_ _er_  Rhain, you get your arse handed to you on a silver platter and you're complaining about disinfectant?"

"Hey, who said I lost?" Another particularly dexterous scrub across the forehead was his only answer. "Ow ow OW OKAY I GIVE,  _I GIVE_! I lost! I lost like a little girl about to piss her pants!"

"Excuse me, little girls do  _not_  piss their pants, that would be the boys." The slightly winded voice caused them both to look at the doorway, where Nerissa stood, in all her half-dressed glory.

"Nerissa?" She let her bag slump to the floor and sat on the ground.

"Oh for the love of – you made it sound like he was mortally injured. I nearly killed myself getting here you know, and I think I probably bought out every first aid toolkit in the pharmacy downstairs." The young woman turned her purse over and scores of gauze, disinfectant, antiseptic and ointments rolled out, spreading every which way. Merlin couldn't help but find it a little endearing.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, tearing a piece of the gauze that he already had, putting a ointment on the gash and taping the gauze in layers to his forehead. "I guess I panicked, to be fair, I haven't had anyone to call when I'm in trouble, so I just automatically went for the phone without realizing it."

"Hey, how are you injured, I'm the one whose head is split open like a cantaloupe." Rhain finally seemed to properly zero in on Nerissa and recognition flashed across his face.

"Merlin, that's – that's Morgana isn't it?" Merlin nodded, looking between the two. 

"Yes, it is. But she's not the same as before, I can vouch for that." Rhain regarded him for a moment skeptically but whatever he saw in Merlin's face must have satisfied him because with no more mention if his suspicions, he agreed with him.

"That's true, the old Morgana would never have walked out of the house with her hair still in curlers." Morgana went pale and scrambled up from the floor, her hands automatically going to her hair. 

"Nerissa - "

"Where’s the bathroom?!" The slight note of hysteria in her voice made Merlin want to put up his hands in surrender. 

"The door on your right."

Without another word, Nerissa went in, without closing the door, pulling the rollers out of her hair, tossing them on Merlin's counter, mumbling indecipherably to herself.

Merlin and Rhain just looked at each other.

"Weirdly, that’s normal, and also not normal."

"Tell me about it."

* * *

 

"Arthur, you little  _devil,_  you've grown up so well! I could just eat you right up." Arthur could swear that his left eye was twitching as Aunt Petunia used her rather large hands to pinch his cheeks., though they felt as though they might tear at any moment. He felt something soft beside him and to his horror found Cindy using his arm as some kind stand in for a stuffed toy to cuddle with.

"Aha, thank you Aunt Petu -"

"Oh Petunia, stop it. Can’t you see that he's embarrassed? Don’t you know that boys his age prefer to referred to as  _men."_ The predatory gleam in his Aunt's friend's eyes was enough for Arthur to want to go running pride and dignity be damned. Cindy was his Aunt's friend from her regular social circle, around the same age his aunt, somewhere in her mid-thirties and frighteningly loud as well as obnoxious. The impulse to run was becoming almost overwhelming, Arthur thought, as Petunia squeezed his arm appreciatively, making comments on how much he must worked out in order to gain them. The muffled snort of uncharacteristic laughter from his Father was making him want to somehow stick it out, if only to show his Father that he wouldn’t run in the face of what was turning out to be excruciatingly atrocious company. Well for now. He couldn’t speak for how he would feel in another five minutes.

_Damn you, Nerissa._

Thinking of Nerissa, Arthur was only now able to think about the fact that the one Nerissa had been talking to on the phone had been Marlin. It was strange, he thought, tuning out the background chatter of his Aunt and her friend, thinking about how seamlessly Marlin had somehow integrated himself into Arthur's life to the point that his own sister was meeting a boy a couple years younger than herself, of her own accord. On the previous Thursday, there had been nothing of this sort, no strange feelings no weird feelings of déjà vu, but come Friday, with the bizarre appearance of Marlin in his school, and the attempted assassination at the Charity Ball, Marlin was suddenly an all-encompassing feature in his own mind. He seemed to have ability to even tear his own thoughts away from the boy. But that was another thing that confused him. Marlin was in his class, meaning he was only 18 but his  _eyes_ , Arthur thought, imagining them in his mind's eye, his eyes were the most still clear water blue, and yet they seemed so  _old._ Even old didn't seem to be an apt comparison, it was as if they had seen  _everything_ about him when he gazed at him, had seen everything there was to know. Not only that but it seemed that looking into those eyes sparked something in him, something almost like  _recognition._  Which was insane because he had never met Marlin before then but yet, he couldn't shake it, the feeling of an incomplete meeting, an incomplete fate. 

That, more than anything else, made Arthur want to see Marlin again, if only for a moment.

* * *

The next morning, devoid of sleep and crankier, Arthur sat in his seat in class, his homeroom teacher nowhere to be seen. Marlin had just come in, seconds before the bell rang, huffing and puffing while collapsing in his chair. His desk partner murmured something to Marlin and Arthur felt a flash of something unidentifiable flash through him, surprising him. But while he tried figure out exactly what he'd just felt, the door to the class opened and a woman strode in. 

Arthur faced the front, looking at her but barely seeing her, his mind was so thoroughly occupied that he only just registered her appearance. It was attractive, his mind supplied in the background, although from of an observatory position than he was used to. She was tall, and her skin was the color of milk chocolate, with wavy hair that fell to her waist. These were admittedly admirable traits but Arthur would not have paid it any more mind than he usually did, were it not for the fact that Marlin, 4 desks over, had gone stiff in his chair, his back ramrod straight, and appeared to be sweating slightly, the expression on his face could not have been anything other than shock. 

"Good Morning students, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Gwen Eliguis and I will be your homeroom teacher for the term."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiiiiiii also SORRRRRRY  
> I realize that Im a teeeeensy bit late, but what can you do when life decides its just going to kick your ass from EVERY ANGLE it can.  
> so please read and comment what you think! Ill love you foreverrrrrrrrrrr.


	13. Stranger

_God what_ _I_ _wouldn't give for a smoke right now._

Merlin tried to push the traitorous thoughts out of his mind as soon as they entered, hanging his head and sighing. He was supposed to be a high school student and he sure as hell wasn't going to fall back on the habits he'd been entrenched in during the early days post the deaths of his friends. 

Speaking of which, Merlin was sure he was going to get an earful from Arthur later about skipping class but he couldn't be bothered to care about any of that right now. Merlin had snuck out of class on the pretext using the restroom but instead he ducked out onto to the roof of the school, it was forbidden to student to be using it but being a warlock had its advantages and Merlin was certain he wouldn't be discovered. He quickly unwrapped the straw from the juice box he'd snagged from the cafeteria and took a sip, his mind slipping away into his thoughts again. 

He slid his back the rest of the way down the wall he was leaning against and lay down on the roof and stared into the clear blue sky above. It was a hot sweltering day and Merlin could feel beads of sweat forming on his skin and running down his body, making his shirt uncomfortably sticky in armpits and collar. Merlin found he didn’t care how hot it was, however, in fact the heat made it so that he could think clearer. 

Everything was happening too fast, and he was barely able to keep up. All these new developments, one after another made it so that his head was spinning and _screw it all_ if he wasn't 100% confused. Emrys be damned, he didn't know _what_ the heavens were playing at. What was happening here? Gwaine, Arthur, Gwen, Lancelot, Morgana, Uther, Gaius, they were all here but _why?_  

Drayce Corporation felt like a mockery of Camelot, a Kingdom unto itself and Merlin, being who he was, had managed to ingratiate himself into it somehow but he was becoming more and more irritated by the lack of direction his life taking. What was he supposed to _do_ with Arthur having been reincarnated. The modern world had no need for a King, not anymore. In any case, the most the boy could have been King of was Camelot, so what, was he supposed to train the kid to become Prime Minister? Head of the U.N? Just what was the end game here?

Just having finally clued Gavin in, Merlin was in no rush to do it all over again. Besides, how on earth was he going to explain to Gwen that she had been reincarnated, and that he was magic? Both would have her running for the hills or calling the psych ward on him immediately. 

"Marlin?"

Merlin flinched in shock and made to get up, forgetting that he still held the juice box in his hand. One ill-timed squeeze sent the entire contents of the box squirting out and hitting him square in the face and neck. He blinked, freezing as he made eye contact with the King reincarnate, standing at the door, looking as surprised as he was. In that moment, the only thing Merlin could note was that Arthur had taken off his blazer and was now wearing only the dress shirt, much like himself. _Guess he's not immune to the heat, even if he looks like he could be the Sun God himself with gorgeous blond – wait no, nope. Calm down._ ** _Do not_** _go there._ Before Merlin had time to think about his own actions, he whacked himself in the face, even though Arthur was there, watching. 

Ten seconds of silence went by and then Merlin watched in incredulity as the boy's face went from surprised to an expression of amusement.

"You know, I'm starting to think you scare easily, Marlin. All I did was say your name."

"I was thinking! I didn't expect anyone to be here!" The warlock retorted, he could feel his face flaming as he tried to wipe the juice off with his sleeve, the acidic nature of the orange juice stinging his eyes just a bit. He wasn't about to tell Arthur that he was more surprised that he managed to get up here at all. What the hell happened? He'd cast an enchantment, hadn't he? Were the years of complacency towards his magic finally catching up with him?

"Right, well, it's time for physical training. I couldn't find you after physics so I went looking."

"Why?" Merlin asked, mystified. He drained the rest of the juice into his mouth and tossed it into the nearby garbage can. Arthur shrugged as if didn't really matter.

"Why does it matter? I turned around, you weren't there, so I found you." The nonchalant way in which Arthur said this, leaning against the door frame, made Merlin's blood boil and even though he knew it was unfair, he found he was angry. After all, it was for _his_ sake that he was going through this mess, again, and that he had to protect this clot-pole's clueless ass, again and that he the kid's underling, _again._

"You're aware that I'm only your lackey at work right? I don't actually have to listen to you here?" He walked towards Arthur, intending to pass him and go down the stairs to class, but Arthur had him pause as he passed him by clapping him on the shoulder. 

"Except that my Father is Chairman here so, technically, whether its work or school, you've got to listen to me in both places. You don't wanna get sent down to counseling again, do you?"

Merlin rolled his eyes and continued, ignoring the grin on the young King's face, a grin that told him he'd lost once again. 

_I'm more than 500 years old, and I'm getting my ass handed to me by an 18-year-old_ _._

Some things never change.

* * *

 

Physical training class, or gym, as the Americans called it, presented an entirely different problem to Merlin. He was clearly terrible at masking spells, although he _was_ getting better compared to the early days of his spell weaving when he would leave other mages in stitches in his botched attempts to hide. He'd thought he could use them to disguise the scars on his body but then found that he wasn't quite capable of doing even that. Technically it worked to his advantage because his cover story had been that Gaius – Keyes – had rescued him from a life of abject poverty at the hands of an awful group home. Never mind that the age of leaving said homes was usually at 18, something that Merlin had listed himself as just a few months short of. Even though his scars had a legitimate cover story, he felt self-conscious of people seeing them at all. In the past he hadn't cared much for the impression they gave since having scars was a common enough phenomenon in people. However, in today's day and age, finding an e

He knew most of the class would spare him maybe a few looks but inexplicably move on but it was Arthur he was worried about. He wasn't sure what to expect from this modern version of his King. Had it been the old King, he would have made fun of Merlin for hours about him being clumsy to scar himself but then would also have gone behind his back to find who gave him the scars and why. This Arthur, however, was a wild card, and as such, it was the wild cards that made him nervous the most. 

"Marlin!" Merlin jumped and realized he'd been standing in front of the change rooms without going in. He looked behind him and saw Leon, interestingly enough, his name was the same here. Merlin wondered if that had anything specific to do with his personality, and then realized that Leon was giving him a funny look.

"If you're not gonna go in, could you at least get out the way?" The younger boy shifted his gym pack from one shoulder to the other and looked rather put out that Merlin was obstructing his path to the lockers. Merlin just silently moved aside and let him pass, noting that Leon was just as large as he remembered, not that he was taller than Arthur but still, he was close enough. He was also much bulkier than Arthur and seemed much more solidly built and yet despite that, Merlin had no doubts that if it came down to it, he didn't think Arthur would lose at all to Leon in matters of brute strength. 

 _Wait_ , Merlin flushed and shook his head, pushing into the locker room. _Why am I comparing those two to each other in first place? Get your head out of the gutter!_ Had it really been so long that Merlin was resorting to thinking about _children_ like Arthur and Leon? Well, he was going to have to rememdy that or he was going to end up jumping someone he would later regret. 

The warlock absentmindedly opened his locker and took out the clothes he was meant to change into, a pair of jersey shorts and jersey that were maroon red and made from a breathable linen or cotton material. Merlin set about changing, his brain going on autopilot without even realizing it. 

Then again, in terms of age, Merlin considered, everyone is a child to me, technically speaking. I've got _centuries_ not decades in terms of years on them. Whoever it is that I get involved with, I'll be _far_ older than them, cradle robbing wouldn't even _begin_ to cover the list of offences that would make. Merlin finally got the shorts on and then unbuttoned his collared shirt, slipping it off and stuffing it into the locker. He thought about keeping the muscle shirt underneath on, but then decided against it, knowing that he'd have to walk around feeling sweaty all day, and yanked that off too. 

Merlin finally took note of his surroundings when he realized that the locker room had gone quiet, save for some low murmuring here and there. 

 _Ah,_ Merlin thought, looking around briefly, _so they did notice them. Well, can't say that that's a surprise._ On the far end of the room, Merlin made eye contact with Arthur, who was gaping at him, the same way the others were, which was a bit of a surprise, until Merlin remembered that this Arthur had probably never seen anything remotely like the scars on his body. 

Now feeling self-conscious and vaguely silly for wondering what kind of reaction the marks on his body would evoke from others, Merlin quickly pulled the shirt on over his head. He turned around, slamming the locker shut and tried to walk out of the room as fast as he could without looking like he was rushing, after all, from the way his skin burned, he was sure everyone could tell that he was blushing from embarrassment.

* * *

 

He didn't know why it mattered that Arthur looking at him the way he was, but it just _did._ All through the teacher's initial walk through of the class Merlin could feel the young heir's eyes boring holes into him. It made Merlin's back feel prickly and tingly, as if it were on pins and needles. 

He hazarded a glance behind him and quickly pretended to be looking elsewhere when it became apparent that Arthur wasn't going to stop staring any time soon.

"All right, come on. Let me see you gentlemen work up an actual sweat! I want to see those legs move!" The teacher's yell jolted Merlin into following the other students into a quick sprint that slowly adjusted into a face paced jog. They ran laps around the gymnasium, again and again, until Merlin no longer had to concentrate. His stamina was no laughing matter, given that endurance was one of the skills he was most proud of and it wasn't long until Merlin's mind was worlds away from the gym and its monotony. He couldn't help but be hyper aware of Arthur, his eyes following Arthur's back as he ran in front, his silhouette striking amid the throng highschoolers around them. Merlin was suddenly sent centuries back, to the training grounds of Camelot, remembering the clang of sword on sword and shield on shield, unwittingly get lost in the memories of Arthur calling out battle protocols and the Knights falling into position like clockwork. 

Page Break

"So. That was something." Merlin barely held back the yelp that wanted to escape him when he heard Arthur's voice in his ear. He shot a quick look next to him and sure enough, there he was. He must have slowed his pace so that he would be able to run in tandem with Merlin. 

"..what?"

An eloquent response, really, Merlin winced, as soon as he heard himself speak. Why did his brain turn to mush so easily? 

"those..marks, on your back, I mean."

"Oh those. It's not a big deal. Forget about it." After all, Merlin couldn't tell him that he'd been victim to practically every type of torture known to mankind. Not exactly a relatable experience. 

"Not a big deal? Those scars look like the wounds were bad enough to _kill_ you." Arthur protested against Merlin's nonchalant dismissal.

"There isn't anything to say, Arthur. They're just scars."

 Merlin had meant to get Arthur to shut up about the scars by brushing him off but hadn't anticipated the heir's tenacity. Merlin found himself being dragged to a halt when Arthur grabbed his arm and stopped running himself.  

"No, they're not. Marlin - " Arthur now seemed to realize they had an audience, as they both noticed the others still running but now looking at the both of them and murmuring amongst themselves.

"Sir, I seem to have twisted my ankle, I'd like to go to the infirmary." Arthur yelled to teacher whilst simultaneously leaning heavily on Merlin. The teacher appeared unable to refuse Arthur despite it being clearly obvious that Arthur was making up an excuse to get out of class and drag Merlin with him, so off the two went, Merlin dragging most of Arthur's body weight as they exited the gymnasium. 

They only made it out some thirty or so paces before Arthur stood upright again and promptly 'escorted' Merlin into the first empty classroom they could find and shoved him into a chair.

"Alright, talk."

Merlin stared incredulously at the 18 year old _brat_ in front of him, tapping his foot and waiting like Merlin was _obliged_ to tell him anything. And yet. 

He could feel it. Right on the tip of his tongue, he could feel the words ready to come out. To tell Arthur and he _hated_ it. Merlin hated how he couldn't refuse him anything so he set his jaw resolutely and shook his head, mute.

Merlin could practically _hear_ Arthur's eyes roll and the sigh that escaped him was explosive, as if he were world weary already. 

"Merlin." Arthur had bent down and was staring at him intently, a smirk on his face when he saw how quickly he snapped his head up in shock.

"You react weirdly to being called Merlin." Arthur made himself directly eyelevel to Merlin and continued to speak. "You thought I hadn't noticed, but you forget. I'm the son of a businessman. I've been trained since I was little to find people's weak spots. So," Arthur smiled quite widely and frankly, for the first time, Merlin felt a _little_ bit frightened. 

"Let's get talking, shall we?"

"Oh fine!" Merlin looked away, _sure_ that the blush on his face was visible. He made a mental note to end his 90 decade streak of abstinence _promptly_ so that Arthur's proximity would no longer affect him like this and his frustrations wouldn't shackle him like this.

"Look, you've probably read my file. I was a foster kid. Usually ended up getting the short end of the stick when it came to picking foster families. You'd be surprised how many people want a whipping boy instead of a kid. It's nothing glamorous. I didn't make some heroic sacrifice to get these, it's just bad parenting."

Merlin tried ending it off by making light of the situation but quickly found that that wasn't quite an option given the way Arthur's face had gone dark with fury. 

"Whoa, hang on, what's got you so upset?" Merlin reached out for the first time that day to touch Arthur of his own volition, trying to ignore how conscious he was of the fact. 

"What's got me upset? Why aren't you _more_ upset?" Merlin shrugged, he couldn't be angry that he had these scars. Each one was proof that he was doing something worth it. Every scar reminded him of a life he had saved or a life he had failed, they kept him humble. It reminded him that no matter how many mages and warlocks and wizards sung his praises, he was just a farm boy, and he needed to stay a farm boy. One that would go into the thick of battle without batting eye and someone who could withstand the harshest of poverty. 

These scars reminded him of why he was who he was.

"They make me who I am." Merlin replied simply, looking at Arthur calmly. Arthur stared at Merlin for a moment, like he couldn't even _begin_ to understand him but after a few moments of silence and failed starts, he just groaned.

"You are, without a doubt, the _strangest_ human being I've ever met."

Merlin could do nothing but grin at him. After all, Arthur didn't know how spot on he was.

And from here on out, things would only get that much stranger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyyyyyyyy. Back at it again with chapter 13!  
> Please leave me a comment and let me know how i'm doing :P


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